


Those Who Prove Worthy

by notnowcommander



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Treasure Hunting, Treasure Hunting AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2019-08-28 08:59:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 44,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16720320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notnowcommander/pseuds/notnowcommander
Summary: Thousands of years ago, the Protheans vanished without a trace, leaving virtually no record of their existence, other than a vague and cryptic myth of a hidden treasure of untold riches and knowledge. When a Prothean relic is uncovered and brought to the Citadel Archives for the world to see, archaeologist Kaidan Alenko isn’t so sure that it’s just an artifact. Unfortunately for him, Cerberus and notorious acquisitions contractor Jane Shepard are sure that the artifact may hold the key to finding the ancient treasure as well. Racing against one another to find answers and clues, the hunt leads them on an adventure through harsh landscapes and trials, in hopes of finding a treasure worth dying for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's time for this girl to get back to work on a new AU. I've been really wanting to write a treasure hunter au for some time now, because in a way it combines a lot of things I really love, but the ideas never came together until now. So here we are! I hope you guys enjoy the first chapter and the future chapters to come, and as always, your comments and support are so appreciated! :)

The rain pours down on the excavation site with a mighty force, and the tent is starting to seem far too small and futile. The water makes for softer dirt, and is easier to stick a shovel in, but Liara T’Soni worries it may be sweeping away evidence and could potentially damage artifacts buried beneath the dirt. But she knows they’re onto something, and they’re just a brushstroke away from discovery. 

She found this site just a spare few weeks ago while venturing in the area. It was nearly completely overgrown and hidden by vines and roots, but there was evidence that _something_ had been here. Limestone blocks formed what used to be a rectangle, and what she suspects is a house. It’s been the firs time she’s found what considers proof that the Protheans had lived in this area. It would narrow down her window drastically, and she’d know where to aim her next digs. She hopes it’d be enough proof for people to even _believe_ in the Protheans. 

It was part of what fascinated her so much about them. The Protheans had been gone for thousands of years, and there was virtually nothing left behind. There were a spare few ruins and temples, but they often yielded little results. Evidence of carvings and wall paintings were usually scratched off, showing signs that someone hadn’t wanted their legacy remembered. They’d found a few pieces of art that managed to survive — though always badly damaged. The writings that withstood the test of time described something called Reapers, an antagonistic force that brought on their demise, but both the Protheans _and_ their conquerors remained somewhat of a legend.

Liara couldn’t help but think about her own life, and how easy it would be for someone to erase her from history, just like had been done with the Protheans. There was a lack of guarantee that any single person’s existence would be remembered. And hope and memories just weren’t enough, clearly. 

“Doctor, I think we have something,” Feron, her excavation assistant called out from under the tent. He was crouching in mud, and holding something wrapped in leather. 

_Leather,_ she thought, _that’s not good._

She was expecting something made of clay or stone, something that didn’t look so modern and taken care of. She didn’t come this far to find someone’s leather-wrapped canteen, or a piece of camping gear. She was here to find history, and to find answers. To have forced her crew into the middle of the jungle, into intense rainstorms… it feels cruel.

“What is it?”

Feron stands, slipping in the gushing mud beneath him and wobbles toward her. He hands her the leather pouch, and she finds that it’s heavy. There’s something inside it. It could be rocks, or someone’s belongings, but there’s a solid shape to it, like a statue or totem. She raises her eyebrows andunties the pack. Mud and dirt have leaked in, but the leather is somewhat intact, and it’s clearly been protecting whatever is inside. 

Liara sets the pouch on the table in front of her and pulls out a pair of gloves. She slides them over her damp fingers, wiggling them on tightly. She draws the pouch up to her line of sight and pulls out the totem inside. She eases it out and rests it on the table, and pulls out her flashlight. She shines the light on the small statue inside, and sucks in a deep breath. 

The statue can’t be bigger than her hand, and can be gripped like her flashlight, but it’s ornate and the carvings on it form a traditional Prothean figurine. It’s a soft green, like perhaps it used to be a copper or other alloy, but an atomic test will need to be conducted to confirm. The figure is consistent with other cave art and carvings of Prothean kings and queens, usually portrayed as human, and their royalty signified by large diamond shaped headdresses. The figurine’s face scowls at her, a look of defiance and determination. Liara wonders if it’s the look of a civilization aware of their imminent demise. 

“Doctor, what is it?”

“It’s a… figurine. It’s a piece of art.”

“Is it Prothean?”

She nods. “Yes. It’s consistent with other art styles we’ve seen, but this is _intact_. It needs authenticating, but I have to believe it’s authentic. Art style is consistent, aging on the material matches approximate Prothean models.”

Liara feels along the sides of the figurine, and finds grooves along the exterior. It reminds her of a puzzle piece, and makes her question whether or not it’s art or has a use. She thinks it could be a tool of some sort, but so little is left behind of the Protheans that she doesn’t want to jump to conclusions. 

Feron pauses, and crosses his arms. She knows exactly what’s on his mind, and it’s on hers too. She’s seen artifacts like this before. Deceptive, yet alluring, and each one fills her with the thrill of finding something that’s never been seen before, something that the world had forgotten about until this moment. She thinks the joy in archaeology is making people remember. 

“Doctor T’Soni, it was sealed in a leather pouch. This may have belonged to someone else.”

Liara — full of denial and hope — shakes her head. “You may be right, but this is Prothean. Maybe we’re just not the first to find it. If you ask me… I think someone was trying to protect this.”

“For what?”

“To be found. To be preserved,” she pauses and shakes her head. “Feron, I would think after years as my assistant you wouldn’t need to ask.”

Feron gives a smile. “The Protheans still trigger the skeptic in me.”

Liara holds the idol up to the light in their tent. She smiles. She doesn’t need to authenticate it to know it’s real. She’s spent her life and multiple degrees studying the Protheans, and she feels a connection to them in a way she can’t describe. She _knows_ this belonged to them. She feels connected to it, like looking at a relic left behind by an old family member. 

“So… what do we do now?” Feron asks.

Liara sets the idol down and pulls out a sterile rag to begin cleaning. “We share it with the world.”

*******

 

It’s nearly 12:30 PM when Kaidan’s computer pings with a message from Ashley. Kaidan sets down the jewel fragment in front of him and pulls his eyes away from the magnifying glass attached to his desk. His eyes burn as he looks away from the light, and shoves his glasses to his forehead to rub them with the bases of his palms. It’s been hours of looking at a piece of rock and no legitimate signs of a clue in sight. He’s beginning to think that if he doesn’t head home and to sleep soon, he’ll start seeing answers that aren’t there. It’s always a sign to call it a day.

He rolls his stool over to the desktop on the other side of his desk and fumbles for the Slack icon on his task bar and opens a series of messages from Ashley. 

 

Are you still here?

 

If you are, can I come by?

 

There’s an aura of enthusiasm in her messages, and Kaidan can tell whatever she wants to share with him doesn’t want to wait. But his body yearns for sleep, and his eyes and brain need a rest. He’s sure she’s found something — something that may help him — but he isn’t sure he’s up for hearing it right about now. He hovers over the keyboard before typing out his response. 

 

Yep, but on my way out in a few. Is it quick?

 

He waits for a response a few moments, and when one doesn’t come, he takes off his rubber gloves and shuts off the light on his exam table. He can only look at so much uninformative rock for one evening. He’s just about to shut off his computer when there’s a knock at his door. He sees Ashley’s frame come into the mirror and he motions for her to come on in. 

“Dang, still scrubbing out dust past midnight?”

He cracks his neck and rubs his eyes again. “Yeah. Felt wrong to go home without any answers.”

“You know, the same chunk of earth is going to be there tomorrow,” she says, sitting down across the desk from him. “It’s the nice thing about history. If it hasn’t gone anywhere for hundreds of years, it’s pretty unlikely it’ll go anywhere overnight.” 

Kaidan gives a tired smile. Ashley’s right, and he’s quickly reminded of how good she is at getting him off his ass and into bed, even if it means sleeping for just a few hours on the office lounge couch. Sometimes she’s the only person who can. James usually signs off with a somewhat judgmental quip about how he needs to go out more, or go on more dates or something. Tali is good at reminding him that he’s salaried and isn’t going to be making money on this overtime. He’s grateful that Ashley can speak his language.

Usually, by the time Kaidan shuts down and heads out for the night, Alliance Acquisitions is a ghost town. It’s a far cry from the bustling, populated, and thriving lab it is during the day. Samples are put back into their protective casings, lab lights and magnifiers are shut off, and worst of all, the coffee is drained. But in some ways, Kaidan likes the quiet it leaves him with. The Alliance has always been a leading acquisitions and private expeditions company, and science and archeology has always been the priority. He was lucky to be surrounded by so many bright minds and endless resources to do what he loved. But sometimes, it was the quiet and alone time that led him to his best breakthroughs, the chance to be alone with his thoughts. 

But in the hunt for the Blackbeard’s lost treasure, his brain is silent. He thinks that maybe it’s futile. He’s tracked down enough treasures and lost cities that he knows when something doesn’t want to be found, following any random lead isn’t the way to start. Many old cities or artifacts aren’t in hiding, just remaining stagnant, waiting for attention. It’s something that Alliance Acquisitions has wanted so badly for so long that they may be grasping at straws at this point.

“I don’t think we’re onto something here,” he says. “The aging on these fragments isn’t consistent with being 18th century. Nor does this look like anything that a world famous pirate would be after.”

Ashley leans over his desk. “Oh come on, what kind of archaeologist are you if you can’t see the value in a hunk of earth?”

Kaidan laughs and shrugs. “Fair point.”

“Could be a questionable sample, though.”

He nods. “Yeah, I guess. But it feels bad to still have no answers. I can write up a report, and see if the excavation team can head back to the site and-.”

“And that can wait for tomorrow, you know?”

“Sure, but-.”

“Come on, you know Udina isn’t going to fund another dig when your report sounds like it came from a third-grader.”

Kaidan gives a smile and rubs his eyes again. “And this is why you’re my favorite research assistant. So, what’d you find?”

Ashley takes a seat across from him at his desk and pulls her laptop out of her bag. She types in her password furiously and quickly spins the screen around, flashing a news headline. His eyes adjust to the bright screen, and words don’t really register just yet. Then, it all clicks into place. The headline reads “Prothean Relic Found in Central Africa”, and a large display image shows a small statuette in remarkably great condition. 

It’s a faded green, like perhaps it had been copper at one point, and the figurine certainly matches the few drawings they had of the Protheans. It’s a figure of a man — possibly — adorning the traditional geometric headdresses frequently drawn in cave art and friezes to mark idols and kings. It’s remarkable… and rare. One thing that sticks out is a series of odd grooves and notches on the sides, as if it was a part of something larger. Suddenly, he forgets about his exhaustion and late hours. This is the kind of thing he can lose sleep over. 

The Protheans have always triggered a sense of excitement in him, ever since his grandmother spent days telling him about them, and about her adventures to find what they left behind. She’d told him legends about a treasure worth dying for, full of gold, art, written records of their history. It allured him the way stories of Atlantis and Roanoke and Shambhala had captivated him. There were things out there that hadn’t been seen in thousands of years, and they still existed, just waiting to be found. In a way, he saw it as a responsibility. 

“Wow. Prothean, huh?” was all he could spit out. He had plenty to say, plenty of questions, and exciting conjectures to make, but over time, he’d learned to keep those things to himself. 

“I sent you the link to the article. It was that doctor, Liara T’Soni. She was leading an excavation in the region and happened to find this. There’s very few details though. Just that it was found. It’s weird.”

“She could be still piecing through it herself. I’m sure we’ll hear more about it in the coming weeks,” he says. “Besides, there’s the matter of authenticating it. It looks legit to me, but… you know how people feel about the Protheans.”

“Yeah, mythical, not worth the energy. I think one day we’re going to regret sleeping on them for so long.”

Kaidan shrugs. “Hey, you said it, not me.”

Excitement courses through him, and he’s glad someone has found _something,_ but he’s mad that it isn’t him. Ashley only has the best intentions, but the discussion still makes something in the pit of his stomach rise. Maybe it’s anger, jealousy. Someone was out there staging digs in reported Prothean territory, and it wasn’t him. Someone else was on the cusp of something great, and he was here digging away at a hunk of graphite and not even getting paid overtime for it. 

“I know, but-.”

“Ash… you know that this doesn’t change anything,” he says, holding up a hand to cut her off. 

“Dr. T’Soni could be writing a paper right now, something that has information we have never heard of before, and if she can get it published, or recognized, then maybe you could-.”

Kaidan shuts his eyes. Suddenly the find of an ancient Prothean relic feels less exciting, and more like a weight on his shoulders. It’s monumental, if authenticated, but it feels like salt in a wound. 

“Ashley, you know how they are. What Dr. T’Soni found is remarkable, but it’s not going to help me.”

There are few people in the office Kaidan’s been willing to fully divulge to. He’s known for finding Fenn’s Fortune out in the Rocky Mountains, tracking down several pieces of stolen art from the Gardener Museum, but few know what made him want this life. Ashley is one of them. Many think he’s happy hunting down what leads he can, eager to get his hands on any bit of history. And he is, and he loves his job. But there’s more to it that, and more things left unsaid.

She crosses her arms. She’s not mad, or embarrassed for bringing this to him. She’s just heard this all before. 

“Kaidan, you need to go after this one day. If anyone deserves to know the truth, it’s you.”

The thought makes him smile. “Thanks.”

“I mean it. If they left something killer out there, I want you to be the one to find it. I’ll help however I can. But, that being said, I think that you should blow this popsicle stand and get some sleep. You’re starting to look a little crazy.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“Someone’s got to keep a great treasure hunter humble.”

 

***

 

It’s even later when Kaidan finally reaches his apartment and kicks off his boots. It feels like it’s been days since he’s last been here, though it’s only been since this morning. He stumbles toward the kitchen and opens the fridge to find the rations rather lacking, and settles on a cold slice of leftover pizza before migrating to the living room. 

The apartment feels almost uninhabited lately, with the days of work growing longer and longer. There’s few dishes in the sink, few items left out and around - save the tossed aside blanket on the couch from when nights of research went too long for him to reach his bed. He suspects this is probably why he’s single. In fact, he knows it is. The last boyfriend left him when trip after trip ended up stacked on top of one another, taking him away from home for nearly two months. The girlfriend before that told him she could never have a family with someone who was never there. Neither of them were wrong, but it didn’t make a cold and quiet apartment feel any less lonely. What he needed was someone who lived for the adventure as much as he did.

_Maybe I could get a cat,_ he thinks.

As he sits down on the couch and flips on the TV, ready to fall asleep to the oddly comforting sounds of some late night conspiracy theory docuseries, his conversation with Ashley still lingers in the back of his mind, and he’s still not sure how to feel. He wonders if he should be excited, or if means things will begin to change and work in his favor. The more people knew about the Protheans, the more likely it’d be something he could pursue. 

All the world knew about the Protheans was that they ruled an ancient city called Ilos thousands of years ago, and then mysteriously vanished without a trace. With no written history surviving, and very few sites that were definitively attributed to them, it was like they never existed at all. The only thing that truly remained was a small set of ruins with art that spoke of a great treasure that remains to be found. Linguists and archeologists couldn’t agree what the runes and inscriptions truly said, or if it had anything to do with the Protheans at all. The Internet, however, loved to debate the topic.

It’s something he’s always wanted to do. He debated taking a semester off of college to go track down evidence of the Protheans, but his mother forbid him from going, because letting hunting through the African jungle was exactly how scrawny nerds like him eded up dead. She wasn’t wrong. He’d tried to write about the Protheans for his masters thesis, but found there was surprisingly little to closely research. And then his request to write his dissertation on the subject was also declined. Researching the Protheans aside from for his own enjoyment had always been a dead end, and he knew now not to bring it up unless he absolutely needed to.

Though, he still felt stronger about it than the currently shoddy leads they were following on lost pirate treasure. 

Kaidan pulls out his laptop and opens the link that Ashley sent along. He eyes the artifact in the image for a few seconds, and fixates again on the grooves along the sides. It makes him think that perhaps this relic wasn’t used for decoration or as an idol, but as part of something else that hasn’t been found yet. It feels more like a puzzle piece than art. But until Liara publishes more research about it and the site it was found at, it’s hard to draw any conclusions from just a picture. 

He shuts the laptop and glances over at the bookshelf in the corner of the room. His eyes settle on a series of leather-bound journals on the top shelf, collecting dust. They’d been a gift to him when he graduated college. She was so proud of him for following what he loved, and trusted that he’d do well by her writings. Then, he’d just been a little undergrad with a history degree he didn’t know how to use yet. He wished she’d been there when he received his doctorate, or the first time he’d actually _found_ something. It’s been years since he opened his grandmother’s journals. But in a lot of ways, they just brought pain now. When he was a child, hearing her talk about her journeys and her own adventures to find the lost Prothean treasure. She told him about her travels to Africa, and living in the jungle, tracking down what clues she could. She’d relayed her steps to him in great detail, though some of it made no sense to someone who wasn’t there. She hadn’t studied history or archeology, but Kaidan knew no one had come closer to finding the treasure than his grandmother.

He pulls out the first one and carefully unties the strings that bind it closed, and sits back down on the couch with it. He flips open the first page, where he’d taped a small polaroid of the two of them on their family trip to Tulum. He couldn’t have been more than four or five, and she’d spent the whole day with him, walking him around to each set of ruins and each temple and explaining their history. He’d wanted to climb to the top of all of them, and she hadn’t let him because he was four, and they were closed for preservation.

A small note falls out of the journal and onto his lap. He unfolds the piece of paper and recognizes his grandmother’s delicate writing. 

 

_Each journey begins with a ticket, an invitation, or a call._

_Follow them and your gut, and bring something new and undiscovered to the world._

 

He pauses a moment. The word ticket sticks out in his mind. Ticket. It’s something he knows she wrote many, many times, but it never made sense to him, or anyone else who read it. It was one of a few things he so dearly wished she’d elaborated on. But each time he brought it up, she drew back. She told him he might understand one day. She was a brilliant woman, but he never hesitated to acknowledge that sometimes, eccentric was the best word for her ways.

Kaidan begins to frantically flip through the journal and search for any key words referring to the ticket. It doesn’t take long, and one of her first drawings and series of sketches makes him stop skimming pages. He finds a poorly drawn sketch of a figurine of a Prothean, most notably with ridges and grooves along the sides. This too looks like a puzzle piece. It’s marked with several words around the drawing, all noted with question marks.

 

_Ceremonial idol?_

_Key?_

_Ticket?_

_Part of large art piece? Then, where’s the rest of it?_

 

He scans a few more pages. He comes across a small paragraph with the word ticket in it as well.

 

_I have reason to believe that the idol found is a ticket to something larger. The grooves indicate that it will fit in somewhere, and I am hoping it will open something. Harry - the art dealer - who gave it to me, won’t tell me where it was found. But the first step is likely heading to the last place the Protheans were reported to have lived. I can start there._

 

He holds his breath and turns a few more pages until he finds a passage that sends chills up his spine. 

 

_I was right._

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for the positive response on the first chapter! Here's another one for ya, where things really begin to heat up. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts :)

“Dr. Anderson,” Kaidan starts, “I’d like to request a few vacation days.”

Dr. Anderson — Kaidan’s immediate supervisor — looks up. Kaidan hasn’t asked for vacation time in probably two years, and ended up getting all of it paid out to him at the end of each year. To hear that he wants to take _multiple_ is clearly shocking. Anderson ditches his glasses on the table and looks up.

“It’s about damn time, son. Going somewhere?”

Kaidan sits down in front of his desk and nods. “Yes. I’m going to be in DC. I’ll be taking a trip to the Citadel Archives museum there.”

Anderson sighs. “So… it’s still kind of work. Don’t you think a vacation might be nice? Like, Florida or something? Maybe somewhere with tropical drinks and a pool.”

Kaidan shrugs. “No. It’s off the clock stuff. Besides, I like DC. It’s a nice city.”

“Right. And I’m sure that Dr. T’Soni’s exhibit viewing has nothing to do with it.”

Kaidan has worked for Anderson so long that he could read him like a book, sometimes. A day or two after the big find, the Citadel Archives had reached out to Liara to hold a gala and showing of the artifact. Kaidan knew he needed to have a look at it, firsthand. A picture didn’t say enough, but if he could secure a hands-on look at the artifact, he knew he might be onto something. He thought that maybe with the artifact and his grandmother’s journals, the Alliance might finally see the light and let him stage an expedition to central Africa to find what remained of the Protheans. It was a lofty idea, but it had to start in DC.

“It’s something I’d like to see.”

Anderson rubs his temples. His eyes are sympathetic and tired. Anderson was never the one to tell him no, and if he was, the order came from somewhere higher, likely Udina, the acting owner of the company. But he could tell that someone had given him the “don’t encourage him” talk when it came to Kaidan. 

“Kaidan, what do you think you’re going to find? I’d like you to be honest with me.”

“Hey, it’s my vacation time, and I can do what I want with it.”

“I’m not trying to sound accusatory. I just want to know what you’re onto.”

Kaidan swallows. “Well, that artifact Liara found… there are drawings of it in my grandmother’s journals. She refers to it as something called a ticket, and according to her, that artifact opens something else up. But I can’t know that based off of a picture. I think that it could lead to something… maybe the Prothean treasure.”

Anderson is quiet for a moment. “You think the treasure is real?”

“I do. I don’t think that my grandmother would have gone through so much trouble, and pieced together so many clues if it weren’t. If it weren’t real, I don’t think many of those clues and trials she describes would have even been there in the first place. I think they exist because there’s something to hide. Something that doesn’t want to be found.”

There’s no response.

“Anderson, I’m not asking for funding. I’m asking to take a few days to go check something out myself, and see where it gets me. Maybe I’ll come back with nothing, and maybe I’ll come back with something that’ll lead us to something great. I think I owe it to myself and to my grandmother to find out.”

Anderson nods. “Well, it’s not like I’m going to decline any vacation days from you.”

Kaidan gives a smile. “Thank you. I’d like to use three.”

“Out of ten?”

“Yeah.”

Anderson shrugs. “Alright. It’s a start.”

 

***

 

Kaidan’s idea of a dream date was definitely going to a museum. He thought that all parties should be held in museums, and hell, he’d probably get married in one if he had the choice. Not only were they usually beautiful and architectural eye-candy, but they were full of tons of objects and exhibits from all over the world. There was something incredibly unique about the spaces, and he always felt most comfortable there. 

_God,_ he thinks, _I am a nerd._

The Citadel Archives is no exception. The architecture was grand and open, with marble pillars and an ornate rotunda at the center, branching out in multiple directions to the various wings. He’d come here as a child, but hadn’t come back since then. When he was a kid, it was full of tourists and kids on field trips. Now, it was decorated for a lavish gala, with the Prothean relic staged right at the center. 

There weren’t a ton of people, just some interested minds from around the world, many journalists, and _lots_ of security guards. Kaidan had arrived fashionably late, because he wasn’t here for a party, and he most definitely wasn’t here to look at the relic behind a bulletproof glass case. He was going to get his hands on it.

His phone buzzed in his suit jacket pocket, and he pulled it out to find a message from Liara. He’d gotten in touch with her just after news broke about the relic, and she was happy to speak with another person as interested in the Protheans as she was. It took some schmoozing, but she clued him in that the relic moved to the back archives vault at the end of the night, and she would be able to let him take a personal look at it after the gala. She’d sent him an invitation, and told him where to find her at the end of the night, and they’d reconvene at the gala’s close.

He wasn’t terribly mad that he had some time to kill, and he knew exactly where he was going to start. He paced up to the glass case at the center of the hall, and leaned against the gold barricades surrounding it. He’d never seen something Prothean in person before, just heard stories. He’d seen artifacts from so many other cultures, and he knew how to analyze them for meaning and significance, how to authenticate their time periods and compositions. But with the Protheans, everything was new, and everything was undiscovered. There were so many conclusions that still needed to be drawn, and hell, even proposed. Someone had to start.

It was bigger than he anticipated, and he wonders how heavy it may be or what it’s made of. But the carvings are intricate, and he can’t believe how long it’s survived, and how good it looks. Maybe it’s some kind of alloy or rock composition they aren’t familiar with, or maybe the Protheans were advanced in ways that rival the Greeks and the Egyptians. Though it’s right in front of him, it still feels so far away. He needs to be closer, and he needs to know more. 

He steps way from the glass case, knowing he’ll be seeing the relic again later, and heads to the bar. He takes a seat and orders himself a glass of whiskey. He glances around the room, and wonders if anyone else is here with the same intention as him. He knows there’s other hunters out there — though he really doesn’t consider himself one — and he suspects that Liara’s find might be luring them in. But he knows that no one else out there knows the things he knows. His grandmother’s journals were published somewhat online, but without the entire picture, they’d have a near impossible time finding it.

It’s right about when he’s ready to order his second drink that a red haired woman takes the seat two away from him. She glances over at him, as if she’s recognized him. He’s always thought that the nice part of his career is that despite being well known in the field, no one ever really stopped to ask him for pictures or bother him while he was trying to buy tomatoes. 

Kaidan goes to order another drink, and instead, the woman slides over a seat and puts her hand up. 

“Let me get his next drink,” she says.

Kaidan finally glances up at her. She’s stunning in a very intimidating way. Unlike many other women at the gala, she’s ditched the dress for a fitted pant suit, and she’s left a few of the buttons on her shirt undone for a more casual look. This isn’t her kind of party, and he likes that. A sea of freckles spread across her nose and cheeks, and her dark green eyes are charming yet very unreadable. 

“Oh, ma’am, you really don’t have to.”

“No,” she insists, “it’s the least I can do for a legend.”

He holds up a hand, waving the title off. “I-… I don’t think that’s really a fitting-.”

“Well, of course it is,” she says. “You beat out thousands of people searching for Fenn’s fortune for decades, and then went ahead and managed to track down missing art from the Gardner heist? How many people can say they’ve done what you’ve done?”

It’s never felt that way to him. Of course they were accomplishments, and he’s proud of them, and happy to have been the one to find such things. But it’s never been the fame or attention that came with his finds. It’s a strange concept to be revered in such a way, to have people looking up to him. If only they knew that he was just like everyone else, eating cold pizza in the middle of the night, losing a sock in the dryer just like everyone else, or sweating profusely in awkward social situations. He was just a person who didn’t mind getting dirty to find something no one else had before. 

“I guess not that many.”

“Right. So… let me buy you a drink?”

He sighs. “Okay, sure. I’ll have another whiskey.”

“Two of ‘em,” she signals to the bartender. 

The bartender pours them two glasses of whiskey on the rocks, and the woman holds it up to him and they clink glasses. He’s intrigued by her. It’s not often he gets recognized, so he suspects this woman knows something about history or hunting, and he’d like to know more.

“You know,” she begins, “you are far more handsome than the press releases seem to let on.”

He rolls his eyes and laughs. “Alright, now you’re just trying to butter me up. Do you want something, like a cut of a treasure, or…? I’m afraid my research assistant has dibs on a big cut of the next one.”

She laughs too. “Oh please. I don’t need it. Is it so bad to just be impressed by your feats, _and_ your good looks?”

“I suppose not.”

He thinks it’s been too long since he’s been flirted with because just a few quick compliments have him blushing. But he can’t help it that she’s stunning, and charming, and seems to not mind the nerdy talk. In fact, she started it. 

“So… can I ask what brings you here? Is it kind of a courtesy thing? You have to show up for other people’s discoveries or they won’t show up for yours?”

He shakes his head. “No, not quite, though it does feel like a courtesy, I guess. What Dr. T’Soni’s found is extraordinary.”

“Well, it’s a step. A small one, but it’s a step.”

“It is.”

“So you’re just here to look at it, but you’re at the bar, drinking instead? Hmm, some archaeologist you are.”

He smiles. “I took my look. I’ll be meeting and speaking with Dr. T’Soni in just a moment.”

“Oh, I see. Just to learn more, or?”

He knows not to show his cards too soon, and his intel has always been something he wasn’t so quick to share. But the Protheans are such a fringe bit of knowledge, that he knows few buy into. All he has right now is his disgraced grandmother’s words, and a conspiracy theory. He was nearly as credible as a flat-earther on YouTube.

“I… I want to take a look at the artifact because I think it’s not just a piece of art. I think it serves a purpose.”

The woman leans in. “Like… what?”

“Like a key. Or a piece of a puzzle. I may not really know until I get a closer look at it.”

“Uh huh. I mean, you could be right. Those grooves are suspicious.”

He perks back up. If the woman’s taken a close enough look to notice the grooves and bumps, she’s taken a serious look at the art, and she knows something of value about the Protheans. 

“You noticed them too?”

“Of course. I’m no archaeologist, but those are weird. I agree. I think it looks like something needs to be stuck in something, or like we’re missing a big piece of the puzzle. So does this mean the Prothean treasure is your next mission?”

Kaidan sighs. “In a lot of ways, I wish it was. But I doubt it. Unless I can prove something, no one’s going to let me pursue it.”

“Why not just do it?”

“It’s not that easy. It’s something I wanted to do since I was a child, but I’ve hit roadblocks every step of the way.”

“What made you want to do it?” she asks.

“I… It was my grandmother. Luiza Avila. She was huge into history and exploring. She actually managed to see all the new wonders of the world, and those that remained of the ancient world. It was her dream to find the Prothean treasure. That was her specialty. She went all the way to Africa to follow their trail, and she traveled through the jungles completely alone, and she knows no one has managed to get further than her. She came the closest to finding the treasure. I know it too. I’d like to make her proud. Or at least finish what she started.”

The woman doesn’t say anything, but leans in closer, ready to let him continue. No one’s been willing to do that in some time. 

“She would sit me down when I was a kid, and tell me these stories about her journey and adventures, and she’d give me clues and let me read her journals. She had so much information on the Protheans and I have to believe she was right. No one dedicates so much of their life to something, only for it all to be a long con.”

“Why didn’t she publish them? You’d think someone finds something great, and they’d want to share it. They’d want other people to know what they did. I know I would. I’d want to rub it in people’s faces.”

Kaidan frowns. “Well, it was the 1950s, and she was a woman. Everyone told her that she was hysterical, or doing it for attention, and they told my grandfather he should have been keeping her in her place, and not encouraging her to leave home and see the world. She should have been home with her kids. Her notes never had sources because she wasn’t an archeologist, she just loved the adventure. And that made no one take her notes seriously. A few got published online somewhere and are out there, but it’s not the whole picture. It’s not what she deserved.”

The woman rolls her eyes and frowns. “Yay, I love sexism.”

“Me too,” he agrees. “She deserved so much better.”

There’s a moment of silence. God, he misses her. He wishes she were here now to give him some guidance, or just a confidence booster that he’s doing the right thing. That he’s not stupid. He never thought she was full of nonsense, and he knew she’d never feel that way about him. Even the strangest ideas warranted some exploration in her eyes. 

“Once you have your look, where will you go next?”

“If I can take this mission on, I’ll pick up her trail. I’ll head to Africa in the Congolese rainforest, and find the supposed temple she describes in her notes. Then maybe, I-… I’m sorry, I’m babbling, and you probably don’t need all the fine details.”

The woman looks over his shoulder, and her eyes settle on something, and she takes another moment to respond. 

“Oh, no… don’t worry about it. You know… I should get going, I actually have to meet up with a friend. But… it was wonderful talking to you,” she says, resting her hand on top of his. He gives a smile and his eyes flicker up to hers. 

“And you too. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to return the favor. Would I be able to get your number?”

The woman smirks. She steps behind him and puts a hand on his shoulder. She slips a business card in front of him, and he picks it up. He feels her touch fade as he reads over the face of the card. 

 

_Jane Shepard_

_Contractor of Acquisitions_

 

There’s other information, but that doesn’t catch his eyes. The color scheme does. Her card is yellow and black, and there’s an impression on the other side. He quickly flips over the card to see the company logo and name on the front. Cerberus.

Cerberus, an organization with seemingly no limit to their power and their influence and incredibly questionable motives and legality, was here. And he had just shown his hand to their agent because she was pretty and complimented him a few times. _Dammit._

Kaidan spins around in his chair, and begins to skim the crowd. 

“Sir, are you going to pay for this?” the bartender asks. 

“I’m… I really need to go.”

“I really need you to pay,” she insists. 

Kaidan reaches deep into his coat pocket and pulls out two twenties and throws them on the bar. He can’t rush away fast enough. As he turns back around to survey the crowd, he finds that the woman is absolutely nowhere to be found. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the awesome feedback on this! This has been super fun to write, and I'm excited for what's to come! As always, your thoughts and comments are always appreciated :)

Shepard wasn’t lying when she said Alenko was better looking in person than in press releases. He really was charming, and kind, and the type of person who people wanted to see succeed and if she were a normal person following his adventures, she definitely would have wanted to see him find the Prothean treasure. But she wasn’t a normal person. And he couldn’t find the treasure. Because she had to find it first. Her next paycheck depended on it. 

By the time he took a look at her card and put all the pieces together, she’d be long gone, and her plan was already well under way. She makes her way to the back of the Archives, and slips past a small gaggle of people converging around another ancient African art exhibit. Miranda — her analyst and point person back at Cerberus HQ — had spent the past few days going over maps and charts of the archives, and forming multiple plans of attack. However, chatting with Kaidan wasn’t one of them, but it may have even been a better plan. 

A single silver door down a small hallway calls her name and she surveys the security camera situation. No guards, thankfully.

“Miranda, I need these cameras taken care of.”

Shepard leans against the wall, keeping her eyes peeled for anyone coming down the hallway. Miranda’s smooth, accented voice comes over her earpiece.

“Cameras 8015 and 8016, looping footage for the next five minutes. Make it quick.”

Shepard begins to move down the hallway quicker, when a door opens up and a security guard steps out and in front of her.She looks up at the man standing in her way, and gives a smile. He’s over a foot taller than her and his arms must be the size of her torso. He’s easily three times her size, but she’s not concerned.

“Can I help you?”

The man lowers his sunglasses, and eyes her. “I think I should be asking you that question. Ma’am, this area is off limits.”

“I think you may want to reconsider that. I have an important meeting with Liara T’Soni.”

“I’m gonna need to see some credentials.”

Shepard pulls back the side of her jacket, flashing the pistol attached to her side. “This going to work for you?”

The security guard sighs. “Ma’am, no. I’m going to need you to come with me.”

Shepard sighs and reaches for the hair tie around her wrist and pulls her hair into a bun. She looks behind her, and sees there are no guards coming this way.

“I didn’t want to have to do this.”

“Me either,” the guard says, and grips her arm tightly. 

She brings her knee up to his groin with force, and he buckles instantly. Before he can make a sound — aside from the muted gasp that escaped him upon impact — she pulls him into a headlock, and moves her arm around his neck. He fidgets and she moves him to the center of the hall, where he can’t kick or hit anything that might create a noise. She tightens her grip, as he pushes against her and grips at her to let go, but that’s not going to happen. 

Her arms begin to grow tired, but so does he. She feels him slowly slipping into unconsciousness, and releases him. He slumps against the wall, out cold. She leans over him and begins to rifle through his pockets. She finds a security badge, and a ring of keys. She takes both and heads toward the locked door at the end of the hall. 

“Miranda, let me know where I can find Dr. T’Soni’s office.”

“It’s going to be through that door, then hook a right. Let me know what you see when you get there. Looks like she just moved offices not too long ago. Can’t guarantee my maps are up to the minute.”

“Copy that.”

There’s a moment of silence. “For a second there, I thought you were going to let Alenko have his meeting with her.”

Shepard gives a smile. “He can still have his meeting. But he won’t learn anything I don’t already know.”

“I meant that your flirting was very convincing.”

“What can I say? I’m a great actor,” she replies, swiping the guard’s badge against the panel. The door hums for a few seconds, and then beeps with a blinking green light, and she enters.

“Or you actually did think he was cute.”

“Oh please,” she replies.

“I’m just saying. Could have fooled me.”

“I’m inside,” she says, snapping Miranda back to business. It’s not often that Miranda diverts from the plan, but in a way, Shepard appreciates her sense of humor. She’s always thought that Miranda needed to have more fun. Miranda insists that an analyst doesn’t need to have a sense of humor, just be good at their job.

“Great, now make that right.”

“Done.”

“What do you see?”

The Archive labs are sterile, and smell like old dirt and antiseptic. She sees several glass cases with maximum security locks on them, and a series of steel desks. She notes old documents, and old books, but doesn’t see anything that looks Prothean. She knows there’s likely still a few moments before the artifact ends up back in the labs, but she can at least get a head start at finding some research.

There’s a bunch of temperature controlled rooms, and some old artifacts, mostly paper documents on display. I don’t see—.”

“Excuse me?” A soft voice says from behind her. It’s not the voice of a guard, or of someone who could really stop her, but someone who will know she’s somewhere she isn’t supposed to be.

Shepard slowly turns around, and finds herself face to face with the woman she was looking for. Liara looks like she’d much rather be wearing jeans and a t-shirt, rather than an overly fancy dress, but happy to be back in a lab than at the party. But this wasn’t the plan. The plan was never to talk to Liara. It was to get here before Kaidan and Liara could, and take the artifact for herself. She needed a good lie.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be back here,” she says.

She watches as Liara’s hand hovers over the scanner on the door, as if she’s ready to lock them in or call for help.

“Sorry,” Shepard begins, “I think I got somewhat lost, my instructions weren’t great, but... you’re exactly who I’m looking for.”

“What?”

“Let me introduce myself. Jane Shepard. I’m a friend of Kaidan’s. I know you’re supposed to be meeting with him, but he’s come down with something and couldn’t make it. He sent me in his absence.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Miranda says into her earpiece. 

Liara hesitates and Shepard holds out a hand. Liara takes it and eyes her up and down. “Kaidan sent you?”

“Yes, he’s feeling pretty sick so he couldn’t make tonight’s party, but didn’t want to miss out on the chance to chat with you. He’s disappointed, of course, that he couldn’t make it himself. I’ll be coming back to him with all we discuss.”

“You work for the Alliance?” she asked.

Shepard shrugs. “Kaidan and I are associates from a few excavations ago. We both have a special interest in the Protheans.”

“Oh…” Liara says, seeming to buy her story. “I guess then if Kaidan sent you, I can tell you what I was going to tell him.”

“I believe that Kaidan was expecting to _see_ the artifact, correct?”

Liara nods. “Yes. That was part of our agreement. I’m just —. I would feel better if he reached out to me, and told me he wasn’t going to make it.”

Shepard leans against one of the steel tables, and sighs. “I understand, but he’s _really_ not feeling well. Wouldn’t shock me if it slipped his mind.”

Liara sighs. “Okay, well… I’m going to need a few minutes to prep the artifact for transport and I’ll bring it back here to it’s case.”

“Amazing. Thank you. Kaidan and I genuinely appreciate your cooperation.”

Liara nods, and leaves out the door. Shepard hopes she doesn’t run into Kaidan while she’s out there, or the jig will be completely off. 

“Miranda, keep your eyes on Kaidan. Tell me where he’s at.”

“Looks like he’s trying to reach the labs, but he clearly doesn’t know where it is. Liara’s in the opposite direction, and she’s bringing the artifact this way.”

“Excellent. Now. Turn off the cameras in this room the second Liara enters. And then you know what to do.”

“Copy that, Shepard.”

Shepard waits another few minutes, and begins to rifle through some of the papers on tables nearby, and finds a stack of images of the Prothean relic. Of course, she won’t need those once she has it for herself. She snaps a few photos anyway, and sends them directly to the Cerberus database. 

“On her way back now. She has the artifact.”

Shepard nods. “Perfect.”

The door swings open, and Liara comes through the door, holding the artifact in a delicate leather wrapping. She places it on the table before the two of them. It’s bigger than Shepard expects, and she’s already thinking about how she’s going to sneak it out without being seen. She thinks that it can fit in the holster inside her suit jacket, but it might cause a bulge. She’s hoping the chaos of what’s about to happen will be enough to distract anyone. 

“Wow. That is… magnificent,” she says.

“Isn’t it? We’ve never found anything like this before.”

“What do you think it’s purpose is?” Shepard asks.

“I don’t know for certain. But it seems to me like it could be part of something else, like it fits into a larger piece of art or part of a temple. There was just nothing in the surrounding areas, and it—. Never mind.”

“No, please go on.”

“It’s nothing. But here, take a closer look,” she says.

Shepard reaches for a pair of plastic gloves on the side of the table and slides them over her hands. She takes the object from Liara and begins to examine. The first thing she does is turn it onto the side to examine the grooves. These definitely fit in somewhere, and she’s determined to find out what. All she needs is a moment of opportunity.

“Alright. You ready?” Miranda says. “At your next ‘wow’, I’ll go for it.”

Shepard hesitates a moment, and looks to Liara. She has her eyes firmly on the artifact, and Shepard leans into the table, stepping just a bit away from Liara. 

“Wow, this is really—.”

And the lights go out.

The lab rooms are dark and Shepard knows she has about thirty seconds before backup power kicks in. She can’t even see Liara in front of her, and Liara begins to feel around her. She knocks into the table, and into a display case, and stumbles to the ground.

“Shepard?” Liara shouts into the darkness. Shepard deliberately knocks over trays and boxes to create a distraction, and crawls her way toward the door.

“I’m here! You okay?”

“I — yes. Give it a moment, I’m sure backup power will be on. In the mean time, let me get the artifact from you.”

It’s then that Shepard begins to move faster. 

“Okay, let me try to crawl toward you,” she says.

Instead, she crawls away. She is just steps away from the door, and pulls herself from the ground. She shoves the artifact into her holster, and pulls her jacket closed. 

“Shepard? Are you there? Where did you go?”

“Right here,” Shepard says.

“Door’s open,” Miranda says into her ear. “Twenty seconds.”

Shepard twists the door handle, and opens it. Faint light comes from outside, but the rest of the museum is clearly dimmed as well. She hears the crowds bustling and panicking at the sudden outage, and knows she has just a few more seconds to distance herself from the labs as much as possible. 

“Shepard!” Liara yells, as Shepard shuts the door behind her. She swiftly moves down the hallway she came, and into the sea of people. 

“Ten seconds.”

She weaves through several groups, and keeps her eyes peeled as much as possible for Kaidan, noting to avoid him at all costs. 

“Five seconds.”

She makes a beeline for the door, just as the lights flip back on. Everyone lets out a sigh of relief, and begins to resume their business. 

And she’s out the door before anyone even knows the artifact is gone.

 

***

 

If Cerberus was here, Kaidan knew they were up to no good. But he had no idea just how bad their plan was. And then the lights went off. And he knew they were up to something _terrible_. A gnawing feeling in his gut gave him reason to believe that Liara wouldn’t just be meeting with him tonight, and that they were going to use the information he’d been stupid enough to give away to go after the treasure.

He has a lot of thoughts about why Cerberus might be interested in this particular find, but he doesn’t have the time to mull them over.

He heads directly for the labs, where Liara said her office is, and weaves through the masses to reach it. He doesn’t need to sneak around security guards or get himself into off limits areas, because she comes barreling out of the back area of the museum.

“It’s gone,” she mutters.

He thinks he hears her correctly, but chooses to believe she has no idea what she’s talking about. She leans over and rests her hands on her legs.

“Dr. T’Soni?”

Liara looks up and pushes her hair out of her face. A look of shock and disbelief washes over her.

“Kaidan, I-…. I thought—. You’re looking much better.”

He furrows his brows. “What?”

“You were sick. You sent a woman in your place, because you couldn’t make it. And she—.”

“Whoa, what? I have been here the whole time, and was waiting to come talk to you at the end of the gala like we discussed.”

“Oh… I… Oh god. I made a huge mistake.”

“What happened? Someone came and said that I sent them since I couldn’t be here, and then what?”

“We were looking at the artifact in the back room, and then the lights went off, and then she was gone. With the artifact, I’d assume.”

He takes in a deep breath. “You mean that she walked away with it?”

“She must have. I don’t know who else could have taken it. It was in her hands when the lights went off, and I asked for it back but she was gone. I should have never just believed her.”

Kaidan shuts his eyes. “Fuck.”

“I know.”

“What did she look like?”

“Red hair, green eyes, wearing a pants suit.”

“Double fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“Did she give a name?”

“She did. I don’t… I don’t really remember though.”

Kaidan reaches into his pocket and shows Liara the business card Shepard left beside him. Liara takes a look and shuts her eyes. 

“Yes, that was her. Cerberus.”

“Yep.”

Liara slowly opens her eyes and crosses her arms. “What do we do now?”

Kaidan thinks for a minute. There’s only one logical option. Calling the cops won’t help, getting the FBI involved will do nothing. No one can touch Cerberus, and too many people’s hands are tied. It’ll have to be handled a little differently.

“I’m going to stop them. I’m going to find the treasure before they can.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a gap between chapters! Work and the holidays have made it hard to find much writing time, but here's another one for you guys :) eager to hear some thoughts! and very happy holidays to everyone!

Kaidan hates meetings with Udina. Udina was exactly the kind of shady higher up that sold small businesses to big corporations or turned charming bed and breakfasts into parking lots in the movies. He had never done anything to prove that he was truly like those people, but it was the impression that Kaidan got. Acting director was meant to be a temporary title, but it’s been two years now.

Anderson meets him outside Udina’s office door, and they exchange a nod before pushing it open and heading inside. 

“Director, we need a word,” Anderson says.

Udina looks up from his desk. He already looks displeased. 

“I’m assuming this has something to do with the stolen Prothean artifact.”

Kaidan nods. “Yes, sir. It does.”

“What is it?”

“It was taken by Cerberus, which means we need to get it back. And we need to stop whatever they’re planning.”

News broke pretty fast that the relic had been taken, and it’s whereabouts were unknown. Kaidan suspects that Cerberus money behind many of the news sites kept it relatively quiet, and dismissed any real reasons to be concerned. He also suspects that’s why no one’s gone on a serious hunt for answers or the relic.

Udina laughs for a moment, and it seems somewhat fake. “How do you know that?”

Kaidan takes a seat in front of him. “Well, when I was there, I met a woman and we got talking. She was interested in the artifact, and we were sharing our thoughts. And then… well, this may be a little embarrassing, but as she was leaving, I asked for her number, and this was what I got instead.” 

He passes Udina the business card and he looks it over. Udina’s eyes do widen at the sight of the Cerberus business card. 

“Why would Cerberus-?”

“I think they think there’s something legitimate with this relic. Why would they send an agent to this gala if they didn’t think there was some authenticity behind the Protheans?”

Udina rolls his eyes. “We’ve been searching for sights of the Protheans for decades and so few things have ever come up. Everything is just speculation.”

Anderson shrugs. “I think Cerberus thinks differently.”

“So we should follow suit with a bunch of Illuminati sociopaths?”

“No, but we should be curious as to why they are now taking an interest. And they now have one of our only solid pieces of evidence of the Protheans, and God knows what they’ll do with it,” Anderson continues.

“Don’t you think this may be a case for the FBI, then? What are we supposed to do?”

“We’re supposed to stop them,” Kaidan says.

Udina is quiet for a moment. Of course, it could have been worded better.

“What?”

“Cerberus is forcing our hand on the Prothean treasure. I think that’s what they’re after. I think they believe they can make something happen with this relic, and are going to try.”

“The treasure is just a legend.”

“But what if it isn’t, and then we let them take it. They’ll have credit for finding one of the most legendary and whispered about treasures in history, and we sat back and didn’t even try ourselves. I know I’ve come to you with my pitches multiple times, and they’ve never been credible enough to act on. But if Cerberus thinks this is something, then I think we should too,” Kaidan says.

“Director Udina,” he continues, “please. I think we will regret it if we don’t act now. If Cerberus walks away with this treasure, they’ll prove they aren’t a bunch of Illuminati sociopaths and more people will trust them.”

“So you suggest we sent a full team down to Africa to find a treasure?”

Kaidan shakes his head. “No. You send me.”

“Well of course-.”

“No. You send me, and Ashley and Vega as my research and security team, and I’ll go hunt down this artifact and treasure. I’m going to be the one to stop them. I don’t need much, just transportation, supplies, and I’m set. I have all the research and clues I need, and I’ll make sure this is done right. I’m going to bring back something you’re proud of.”

“Dear god,” Udina mutters.

There’s silence. Anderson shifts in his seat and clears his throat. “Director, I think you and I both understand that he’s going to do this regardless of what you say. We might as well help. I’d rather not lose one of our best if we don’t have to.”

Udina shuts his eyes and bites down on his knuckles for a moment. “Where do you begin? Where do we need to get you to?”

“I need to get to Ilos.”

 

***

 

“Ilos is not a real place, at least according a map. It’s like Babylon, or Atlantis. If it existed, it’s long gone now,” Kaidan explains as Ashley and James set their bags down in the rustic loft they’ve been granted for their mission.

“So Terminus is the closest place we can get?” Ashley asks.

“Without sleeping in the jungle for longer than I have to? Yeah.”

Ashley nods. “Well, this is nicer than that Motel 6 we stayed in back in the Rockies.”

Terminus wasn’t exactly close to the first location his grandmother mentioned in her journal. Kaidan anticipates a few days of hiking before he reaches the remains of the temple his grandmother documented. She’d given rough coordinates, and markers on trees and landmarks, but that was all. By his calculations and mapping, he’d be on his own for some time. But a few days in Terminus allows them to get the lay of the land, talk to locals, and stock up on supplies, and establish a strong base back at their loft for research and medical purposes, should anyone get hurt.

The Alliance had cut a deal with a local innkeeper to secure them their largest room to turn into a base of operations. It was full of wood paneling, and hand woven tapestries, with big windows that looked out onto the lush, endless overgrown city before them. The rain pounded on the thin roof, and the wifi was going to be spotty at best, but they could work with that. Most of what he needs to know is in his head anyway.

Since setting down at the airport — which was hardly more than a strip of concrete and a conveyor belt — Kaidan’s felt the excitement of an adventure building in the pit of his stomach. He’s wanted this for so long, to prove his grandmother was right, to prove he was right, to find something that no one had ever found before. He just imagined it coming with so many less strings attached, so many less guns. He’s never imagined it being a hot commodity for someone else at the same time he chooses to pursue it. 

Cerberus can’t be far behind them, but Cerberus doesn’t know what he does.

He looks out the window, onto the vast forests and rainclouds hovering over the city. It’s stunning here, in a way that it feels like people could so easily forget about. He thinks of all the places he's been — the big cities like London, Paris, Dubai, and all their glamour and beautiful sights — and he thinks that places like this take the cake. It’s small, like the tiny farming villages he's visited in Nepal, or small South American towns that feel as if they’re living a hundred years in the past, but it’s alive. There’s people, and food, and dialects, and history that is so intensely part of this sliver of the world, and most people would never think to book their next vacation here. He feels privileged to see parts of the world that are so different from his every day life, and while this may be work, it still feels like a treat.

“Shame to have missed that one,” James says as he kicks his shoes off and leans back on the cot he’s chosen for himself. It shakes Kaidan out of his trance, but reminds him he does have work to focus on.

James was a relative newcomer to Alliance crew, but had proved he was definitely worthy of his title as security manager. His ex-military background and size made him an intimidating foe for most enemies, not that they ran into many in their line of work. But he was also exceptional at lifting things.

“Just think, James,” Kaidan begins, “this time you’ll get a cut if I find anything.”

“Mm, two percent?”

“Depends on how many Ceberus bullets you’d be willing to take for me,” he says, nudging Ashley next to him.

James — lost somewhere in jet lag — waves them off. “Just tell me how many.”

And then he’s out.

Ashley strips her shoes off and leans back on the couch. Kaidan joins her, and sets his backpack down beside him. It’s been a long several days of traveling, and sleep sounds great, but he feels so ready to launch into the adventure. Cerberus is out there, and he needs to be faster than them. But he doubts he can be in this state.

“I can’t believe I’m here,” he says.

“I know. Only took them long enough to listen to you.”

“I just… I grew up hearing about this place so often. Every time she came to discover more, this was where she stayed, and this was where it all started, and where I can trace everything back to. I just… I can’t believe I finally made it.”

Ashley’s quiet a moment. “What’ll you do if you find it?”

“The treasure? I don’t know… share it with the world. Give artifacts to museums around the world. Get the history in the history books.”

Ashley laughs. “No taking any for yourself?”

“Maybe a little bit, but I don’t need it. I just need it found. And by me.”

“I told you I wanted a cut.”

“I know, I know.”

“You’re going to find something,” she says. “And you’re going to stop Cerberus. Full Indiana Jones style.”

He laughs too and rubs his face with the base of his palms. “What does that mean?”

“You know, kick ass, punch Nazis, run away from a big rolling boulder.”

“Yeah, well, alright.”

“Ready for bed?” she asks.

He could really use the sleep, but he knows it’ll just be hours of sitting awake trying to plan his next move, or figure out where to start in the morning. 

“I… I know I’m not going to sleep anytime soon. I might go downstairs and grab a drink, or think through what we’re going to do in the morning.”

“Well, suit yourself. I for one am going to pass out.”

Ashley picks herself up and climbs over to the nearest cot and lays down. She pulls a blanket over herself.

“Damn, this jet lag really hits fast.”

And then she’s out too.

Kaidan pulls together the first of his grandmother’s journals, and moves downstairs to the street. The city is still awake and lively, and it only takes a few doors down for him to find a bar. It’s dive-y — an open air bar with an authenticity and simplicity that touristy tiki-bars wish they could imitate - but not too busy that he can’t get anything done. He finds a seat at the bar, and orders himself a drink. There’s a bit of a language barrier, but he can manage to communicate “whiskey” just fine. The bartender passes him his drink, and he flips open his grandmother’s journal. 

The notes clearly seem non-sensical to anyone else, but he knows exactly what they mean. The first leg of her journey begins here, and she heads east, into the jungle. According to her, she follows a narrow stream that weaves for what she estimates to be three miles, until she reaches a rock face. It’s too wide to go around without knocking serious time onto their journey. He’s going to have to scale it, when he finds it. The next leg of the journey will likely be the longest, a trek through some of the lushest parts of the jungle, with nothing but trees that look all the same. Continue east is the only advice she can give. 

Kaidan’s deep in analyzing a primitively drawn map of the jungle when he feels someone behind him. A hand comes beside him, and fingers curl around his glass. A female hand. He shuts the journal, and spins around in his chair. 

It shouldn’t surprise him to see Shepard here, but just the sight of her makes him angry again. He thinks of how easy it could be to tackle her to the ground, get the artifact, and run. But he underestimated her before, and he suspects it won’t be so easy to outsmart her. It also won’t be easy to fight her. This time, he knows he won’t fall for her good looks and charm. She takes a sip of his drink, and sets it back down on the bar.

“Reading something good?” she asks.

He doesn’t answer, and purses his lips together.

“Oh come on. You can at least act a little impressed I figured out where to get to first.”

“I told you where to go.”

“No, no, you gave me a hint at where you were going. You never said Terminus, you never gave me a specific country or region. Just the Congolese jungle. And yet here we are together.”

“I’m not impressed. You may have bested me back in DC, but this is going to be different. And I think you know that.”

She pauses a moment and smirks. “It’s not. You’re one man, and I have a small army, the relic, and what you told me at my finger tips. I have more than enough to get what I need. I think you know that too.”

She’s wrong, and he knows it. Shepard is smart, and Cerberus is seemingly unstoppable. But there are some things that no amount of money and brute force can finesse, and Shepard’s going to need a lot more than what he’s given away, and what little of his grandmother’s journals were published online. 

“But you’ve already shown that you’re pretty capable. So I’m here to ask something of you.”

Kaidan watches her carefully, sensing it’s not a favor. She leans in close to him and rests her and along his jaw. She tilts his chin down and looks him directly in the eyes. She steps closer to him, between his legs as he sits on the barstool, and her thumb softly strokes the side of his cheek.

“You’re going to turn around and go home, and you aren’t going to mess this up.”

He shakes his head. “That’s not going to happen.”

She smiles, and leans in closer. It’d look romantic to just about everyone else in the bar, and maybe it would be a romantic gesture - if it weren’t for the pistol she’s pressing into his stomach.

“I think you are.”

It should scare him. Shepard is the kind of person who probably would pull the trigger. And Cerberus is the kind of company that’d give such an order. But he isn’t afraid. If she shoots him, the whole bar will know, and between the rumors of Cerberus’ involvement in the heist, and finding a dead Alliance archeologist near the last known location of the Protheans… it wouldn’t take too long for everyone to pull pieces together.

“Go ahead. Shoot me. See how fast the police are on you. See how quickly everyone knows exactly what happened, all so Cerberus could steal a treasure. Believe me, Shepard… nobody is going to be rooting for Cerberus to win this one. There’ll be no glory, no real success. Just theft, and notoriety. Do your best, kill me… but there’ll be nobody for you to turn to the second you’re missing an answer.”

She hesitates and her finger hovers over the trigger. There’s part of him that is beginning to get scared. Maybe Cerberus is far more rogue and unhinged than he initially suspected, that they really would kill their best link at finding the treasure just so they could be ahead of the curve.

“You know I’m right.”

Shepard backs away. She’s angry, but he can sense she doesn’t want to shoot him, or maybe anyone. She’s a thief, and isn’t afraid to double cross. He’s not sure how much of a murderer he sees in her eyes. “I need you to stay out of my way. If I see you again, I will shoot.”

She puts the gun back in her holster, and quickly leaves the bar.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for such a long delay between chapters, but here's another one! I hope you guys enjoy. Here's where the real adventure starts!

East goes on for a long time. Kaidan’s done long hikes and expeditions through terribly terrain before, and he’s put himself in enough life-threatening situations for a lifetime. But jungles are a new challenge. This is also the first time he’s gone somewhere completely alone. Of course, there’s the comm system back to HQ, but if he slips down a cliffside, or gets bitten by a snake or mauled by an elephant… the only person around to save him is himself.

Ashley had checked in throughout the day, asking him what he saw and what direction he was headed. The answer was almost always “Trees” and “East”, respectively. But there was something calming about the alone time. He wasn’t writing reports or combing through academic papers. He was out here, and he was _doing it._ It’s always been the best part of the job.

It’s beginning to get dark when Kaidan begins to scout for a place to camp for the night. The jungle offers solid shelter from the heat and some of the elements, but he doesn’t know what’ll happen over night. He foresees many days of sleeping with one eye open. 

“Scouting for shelter for the night,” he radios in on the comms.

It takes a moment, then Ashley’s voice crackles through. “Great. What’s your best bet looking at?”

“Gonna have to find two trees I can tie the hammock to. Not really a place I can sleep on the ground.”

“Alright, well I suspect by your very detailed descriptions of the terrain, that you’ve got at least two trees to choose from.”

He smiles, and sets his sites on a small grouping of trees near a small, shallow cave up ahead. That spot will do.

“Yeah, there are at least two trees around here.”

“How far do you estimate you are from that rock face?”

Kaidan pulls out the tracker attached to his belt and heads toward the campsite. “Looks like I’ve gone nearly three miles, and my maps are showing some elevation ahead. I should be close. But I’m not going to tackle that overnight.”

“Good plan. Let us know if you need anything.”

“Will do.”

She logs off, leaving him to himself. He begins to assemble his hammock, and ties each end to a tree. He presses down several times to check its stability before beginning to assemble a fire. It’s the first time he’s had to camp alone. In the past, he’d been with a team, or with a girlfriend or boyfriend, or family. It sinks in how lonely it can be, and he begins to wonder if this is how his grandmother felt. She’d trekked out here by herself, leaving her husband and children behind, but so driven by a singular goal. He wondered if that kept her company. Somehow, he doesn’t feel the same. He feels as if there’s something to prove, and knowing that Cerberus is right on his trail makes him feel as if any moment of stopping will let the treasure slip through his fingers.

But there’s not much choice, and any further exploration _has_ to wait until morning.

 

***

Kaidan wakes to screaming. He hasn’t seen any other humans since being out here. Few would be stupid enough to haul their ass all the way out here. There’s snakes, and unpredictable mud, and bugs carrying god knows what, and it’s no place for the average hiker. The only people stupid enough to make their way out here seem to be him and Cerberus.

There’s yelling, not in pain, but possibly in anger. He rubs his eyes with the bases of his palms, and sits up. He fumbles for his walkie-talkie, and waits to hear Ashley on the other side. The hammock’s kept him dry and somewhat sheltered, but his back aches and he feels sticky and dehydrated. There’s an uncomfortable dampness to his clothes, and he would kill for a shower.

“Good morning,” she says.

“Someone else is out here,” he says, keeping his voice low.

“Like who?”

“I think it could be Cerberus. They could have reached that rock face.”

“Shit.”

“I know. I’m gonna go check it out.”

Ashley hesitates a moment. “What if you don’t?”

“They could be there. I don’t want to risk them getting through first. I’m going.”

“Kaidan, come on. You heard what Shepard said. If she sees you again, she’ll shoot you.”

He pulls himself to his feet and grips the gun resting next to him. He checks it for bullets and tucks it into the holster behind his back. He pulls his backpack on. The morning air is humid and warm, but the birds are chirping, and there’s somewhat of a breeze. It feels like a good day to stop Cerberus in their tracks.

“Then I’ll just make sure she doesn’t see me.”

Kaidan follows the screaming to a rock face up ahead. He knows they’ve made it further than he has, and they’re trying to find a way through. The rock face would take days to move around, and with so few maps of the terrain, he has little idea what he’s in for. 

“I told you to not fucking move!”

“This is bullshit,” a man yells. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”

“I do. Now… don’t move.”

He knows the first voice is Shepard. He needs to move faster. He reaches for the first handhold and pulls him up the side of the ledge. He finds a place for his foot and begins to climb. The rocks wiggle under his weight, but he thinks they’ll hold for now. He hoists himself over the ledge, and behind a downed pillar at the center of what looks like a courtyard. Crumbling arches and broken pillars rest throughout the open space, and he peers over his cover to see Shepard and three more men standing in front of a large door. The door spans the side of the rockface, and it looks like stone gears will open it. But it’s not going to be opened with keys. It needs a puzzle. He looks in front of them. There’s a man on the ground with a spike directly through his throat. He hasn’t been dead long. If Kaidan had to guess, he tried to push the door open with brute force.

_Stupid._

Shepard looks down at the journal in her hands, and pulls out a sheet from it. She holds the relic in her other hand, and looks at the carvings on the wall. They’re clearly Prothean, and she’s struggling to read them. Her fingers hover over the letters, and she tries to match them with the runes and symbols in her book. 

She places the relic inside a hole in the wall — one that matches the shape perfectly — and pushes in until she hears a click. She lets out a sigh of relief. She takes a step back. A piece of rock shifts beneath her foot, and she looks down. 

“Wait… See those symbols on the ground? They match with what’s on the wall, and they’re in a certain order. Maybe we need to try to step on them in that order. It shifted when I stepped on it, likeit was opening something, or a right step.”

“Bird, tiger, squid, elephant,” she says, “that’s how they show up on the arch here.”

Kaidan flips open his grandmother’s journal, and finds a page with matching symbols. There’s a bird, a tiger, something that looks like a sea monster, and an elephant. Shepard is on the right track. But why would the Protheans put their door code directly where everyone can see?

There’s a drawing that looks like a clock in the journal, with animal symbols at each quarter hour. 

The hesitant Cerberus soldiers each pick a square, and step on it in that order. Each square sinks into the ground, and something large clicks. Shepard sighs in relief. But the door still isn’t opening. She looks at the door again, and rests her hand on the relic. She gives it a twist to the right, and it locks in place again. Something large moves. She lets out a small laugh of relief… until the man standing on top of the squid vanishes into a hole beneath the rocks. Kaidan watches as he drops into the rock face, and lets out a terrified scream as he reaches the bottom.

“Wilson! We’re gonna get you out!” Shepard yells. She rushes over to him, and looks down into the gaping hole that he’s created. She looks inside and a look of horror washes over her. She backs away slowly and runs her hands through her hair. 

“Everyone off the squares.”

Immediately after she gives the order, a hatch opens and a slew of arrows spring out from the door. Shepard cries out as one of them cuts through her left arm. She clutches the wound and slides out of the way. 

“Archer, I need you-,” she begins, but he doesn’t answer.

The man Kaidan suspects is Archer lays before her, an arrow directly through his head.

“Fuck!”

“This is bullshit, Shepard. We need to just blow it open. You’re never going to figure out these traps.”

“Just shut up and let me think!”

Kaidan wonders if this is the point where he should step out. He thinks maybe he could take the two of them. Shepard would be hard to fight, he has no doubts. But if he could convince them he’s on their side, or to help one another. Then he could find a way to stop them later. And if Shepard fails, he risks losing the relic too.

He steps out from behind cover and pulls out his gun. The Cerberus goon notices first. He spins around, and Kaidan notices that the tile beneath his feet is shifting. 

“Hey! Stop right there!

Kaidan steps closer to the two of them. Shepard turns around, and a look of shock washes over her. It’s clear she wasn’t expecting him to get this far, but she’s showing her hand. She knows that with him here now, she’s outsmarted. 

“Don’t come any closer,” she says, pulling her gun from the holster on her leg. 

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything stupid,” he says.

“Boss,” the goon begins, “you want me to take care of him?”

Shepard glances over at Kaidan and nods. “Please do.”

The goon steps off the tile, and immediately, something rumbles beneath them. Kaidan takes a few quick steps closer while they’re in a panic, and holds up his hand at the Cerberus soldier. 

“Don’t step off of that.”

“What the hell? These traps have taken out all but me and Shepard, and you think I should stay on it?”

“I think you shouldn’t get off right about now. They’re trigger sensors. If the puzzle isn’t right, it’ll kill you. I need you to stay on that tile until we figure out what will reset it.”

“So we reset it,” Shepard says, “then what?”

“I show you how to open that door.”

Shepard crosses her arms. “You’re not going to do that. You’re just waiting for a chance to stab me in the back.”

“Well, the way I see it you aren’t getting through that door without me. So you could get yourselves killed and not open the door, or you could kill me, and still not open the door. Why don’t you let me help you and we’ll see where that gets us?”

It’s a bad plan, but he knows its the only plan. It’s likely that the second he opens the door for them, they’ll kill him. And he doesn’t stand a chance fighting the both of them.

Shepard’s finger hovers over the trigger on her gun, before she drops her arm and slides the gun back into her holster. She shakes her head.

“Dammit,” she mutters. “Alright. We’ll do it your way, Kaidan. Ashe, stand down. I don’t want you to lay a hand on him unless I give the orders.”

Kaidan steps forward and pulls out his grandmother’s journal. He’s thinking faster than he can keep up with, but he has an idea to reset the traps. He just hopes no one has to die in order to make it work. 

“Alright. Stay on that tile for another second. Shepard, step aside.”

She does as he asks, and he moves toward the relic in the door. He grips the relic, and begins to turn it toward the 12 o’clock position. Several clicks register in the gears, and he shuts his eyes, waiting for some kind of explosion or hail of arrows to come raining down on him. But nothing does. He carefully slides the relic out of the chamber and gears begin to spin. 

“Step off now.”

The soldier steps off, and chains begin to whip underneath them. Shepard curses and dodges out of the way. But nothing major happens, except the squid tile emerges from underneath them. A body - Wilson, Kaidan thinks he remembers - lays strewn on the tile, riddled with holes. Blood soaks nearly every inch of his clothing. Shepard moves over to that square, and nudges his corpse off of the space.

Kaidan looks down at the drawings in his journal and sighs. The arrows she’s drawn begin _after_ the 12 o’clock position, so that one will have to be last. 

“Someone step on the bird.”

Shepard and Ashe hesitate, but finally, Shepard takes a stand on the tile. Kaidan slips the relic back into the lock, and twists it to the 3 o’clock position. A gear shifts inside the door, and when he looks, one of the large bars across the top left corner has retracted.

“Shepard, get off the bird. Now someone on the squid.”

Ashe hesitates and moves toward the blood soaked squid tile. He steps on it, letting it sink into the ground. Kaidan twists the relic to the 6. Another bar retracts.

“Tiger,” he orders.

Shepard obliges. He moves the relic to the 9’o clock position. 

The bottom right bar retracts.

“Elephant.”

He gives the relic a final twist. The top bar retracts, and the door opens. It’s slow, and it doesn’t open all the way. But it lets them in. He steps back in shock and relief, and he hears Shepard let out a sigh as well. She joins him at the door, along with Ashe.

“How did you know how to do that?”

Kaidan folds his journal closed and slips it into his backpack. “I told you I was well equipped. You didn’t believe me.”

She motions toward the door. “Then, after you.”

Kaidan steps inside. The door leads them to an inside chasm, something so expansive and vast he has to wonder how _anyone_ built this. Waterfalls pour down each side of a narrow rickety bridge spanning the crevice before them, and he sees a path through the inside of the mountain on the other side. He wonders if the Protheans kept themselves hidden by building this passage through the jungle, or if all of it served as a line of defense against invaders. 

“Holy shit,” Shepard whispers. “There’s a shortcut through here.”

“Yeah,” Kaidan says, “and this is all undocumented. Going around that mountain would have taken days.”

For a moment, he can forget that he’s standing next to someone trying to steal the treasure from underneath him. 

Until he feels a gun barrel pointed at the back of his neck. But it’s not Shepard. Even she’s surprised.

“Ashe, what the hell are you doing?”

“I’m getting us what we need. Give it up.”

“What are you talking about?” Kaidan asks.

“He knows where it is. He has it all written in that journal. We need that to keep going.”

“Ashe, I did not ask you to do this,” Shepard snaps.

“Give it up, and no one has to get hurt.”

“Drop your gun. Now!” she orders.

Ashe begins to fumble with the zippers on his backpack. Shepard raises her gun and focuses it on Ashe. Kaidan knows he has a moment to act, and neutralize the threat. He suspects that in this moment, Shepard may be more on his side than with the spiraling soldier with a clear problem with authority. 

With Ashe distracted, Kaidan spins and catches Ashe’s jaw with his elbow. Ashe falls backward, and draws a knife from his utility belt. He swings at Kaidan, and nearly catches him. The knife nicks the side of his arm, and takes him back a few steps. Shepard moves toward Ashe to stop him, when Ashe tosses a small grenade his direction.

“I told you to stop!” she shouts, and fires her gun.

The grenade goes off in a bright flash of light, and a bit of shrapnel. The light is blinding, and Kaidan covers his eyes, but even then, all he sees is flashing. Something on his chest and arm burns and singes, and he knows it’s going to take a few seconds for the ringing and flashing to stop. But at least he’s not dead.

He grips the burning wound on his shoulder, and tries to sit up. He was expecting plenty of bug bites, possibly a leech or two trying to wiggle their way onto his ankle, but he was not expecting this kind of action so early in the journey. He lets out a soft groan and paws at the ground for his own gun. Then, he feels Shepard next to him.

When he opens his eyes, he can see, with stars floating in the corner of his eyes.

“What a fucking dumbass,” she mutters. 

Kaidan sits up and catches his breath. Shepard offers him a hand, but he refuses, opting to stand up on his own. It takes a few seconds, but he’s able to pull himself to his feet, and lean against the nearby wall.

“Was that your plan?” he says.

“No. Ashe is an idiot, but he won’t be a problem anymore.”

Kaidan looks over at where Ashe was standing, and notices that his body is no longer there. He heard a gunshot go off, but wasn’t sure where the bullet went. He slowly limps over to the edge of the chasm and looks down. He finds Ashe’s body at the bottom, water rushing over him.

“So… It’s just us now.”

“Yes. I… You proved me right. I need you. I need your brain, and I think you might be able to use me a bit too.”

Kaidan narrows his eyes. “I found you in the middle of the jungle blowing up your men. Why would I need you?”

“Because I won’t hesitate if someone or something gets in our way. You need my brawn. I…”

She rubs her face in frustration, like she doesn’t want to say it.

“I will do as you say, and I will work with you. No threats, no violence. I’ll help you if you help me. We can take equal credit for whatever we find. But I need your help.”

He knows it’s got to be a trap. She’ll cooperate until she sees an upper hand, and then he’s dead. But it goes both ways. He knows he’ll find a moment to outsmart her and beat her. He just has to find one first. 

“So?” she says. “A team?”

Kaidan waits a moment, but extends a hand. “Yes. A team.”

Shepard takes his hand and grips it tightly. “It sounds like a good deal to me.”

Kaidan pulls his hand away and holds up a finger. “But don’t think this makes us friends.”


	6. Chapter 6

_That shouldn’t be too hard,_ Shepard thinks. She’s going to sell him out. She’s going to take her first chance to outsmart him when she no longer needs him, and leave him out here. There’s no friendship in that. 

Shepard looks out onto the rickety bridge in front of them, and takes in a deep breath. “Alright. Well, across this bridge that’s totally going to collapse on us?”

Kaidan slips the journal into his pouch and shakes his head. “Don’t even joke.”

“I’m just saying, in movies and games, if there’s a rickety bridge, it’s going to collapse.”

Kaidan notions for her to move first. “Maybe if you stop saying that we’ll get lucky.”

Shepard moves forward and takes her first steps onto the bridge. Her boot meets age old wood, and it crackles beneath her shoe. She wonders if it can hold her weight, _and_ Kaidan’s. She may stand a better chance of getting across, and she hopes if he’s going to fall to his death, he’ll hand over the journal first. 

“Come on. The treasure’s going to be missing another hundred years at this pace.”

“I don’t want it to break.”

He grips the ropes on each side of the bridge. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have jinxed it.”

She begins to move, and each plank wiggles under her. She hears them creak heavily under Kaidan, and she’s prepared to turn around and find him falling into the vast chasm beneath them.

“So, where does this bridge go?”

“Not entirely sure. There’s little accounting for this. She advised following the mountain pass. I didn’t expect it was _inside_ the mountain.”

Shepard looks down. Water rushes underneath them, and she can faintly make out jagged rocks for the water to crash against. Falling _definitely_ means certain death. She’s about halfway across, when a plank cracks beneath her. Her balance falters, and she tumbles forward. She thinks of which plank she can grab, but there’s no need. She feels hands clutch her waist, and she jolts back against Kaidan. He grips her belt and steadies her against him.

“Be careful where you step,” he says.

“I…”

“Just watch where you’re going, okay?” 

Shepard nods, regaining her balance and makes the last few strides over the bridge. She’s shocked that it holds up for both of them, and they both take a look back at their path. Kaidan sighs, and sets his sights forward. She’s noticed that for him, it’s always forward. Never looking back. His line of work doesn’t require him to constantly be watching his back, and it shows. She knows this will be easy. Catching him off guard, selling him out — it’ll be one of the easiest cons she’s ever pulled off.

“Come on, let’s keep going.”

 

***

 

Shepard doesn’t know how long they walk for. But she knows the shortcut through the mountain has been deceptively easy so far. A bridge that doesn’t collapse, a small trail through the inside of a mountain with few traps, just some snakes and doors that need a little extra push. 

The mountain pass eventually brings them back outside, and around a cliffside. By then, it’s nearly night time. She finds it hard to believe that wandering through the passage took nearly a whole day, and she assumed that they’d have made more progress. But she also knows there’s no way that they’d be able to access this point without making their way through the hidden door. Cerberus would have never have found this. Not without Kaidan. But it leaves them exposed to the elements, and that’s when it starts to rain. 

It’s when Kaidan attempts to zipper their tent that he’s pitched that Shepard notices he’s favoring his left arm again. He kneels in front of the entrance to the tent, and hesitantly raises his right arm. There’s a wince of pain, and he almost goes to reach for his shoulder, but stops himself. Possibly an attempt to seem tough, or not show any vulnerability around her.

She’s seen the damage that Cerberus flash grenades did to people, and he’d gotten close. Maybe a little too close. Obviously the blast had left behind small cuts and knocked him off his feet, but she wondered if there was something she couldn’t see so easily.

“You do something to your shoulder?” she asks.

He doesn’t answer, just finishes zippering the tent. The silent treatment. She suspects maybe he’s got a good reason. She did steal the Prothean relic from him, threaten to kill him, nearly had her Cerberus goons kill him, and hasn’t been particularly nice. There was also the part where she was after the same treasure as him, and the part where she was planning on double crossing him the second that she saw an opportunity. But he wasn’t much use if he was in pain, or if he died of some flesh eating disease in the middle of the jungle because a wound went uncleaned. She needs him. She keeps reminding herself of that. 

“Alright,” she finishes.

He sits back down across from her, and pulls out his grandmother’s journal. Each time he dangles it in front of her, she finds herself wondering more and more how she’s going to nab it from him. If he weren’t so smart and such a critical part of finding the treasure, it’d be so damn easy to shoot him and take it off his body. But she needs him. She hates that she needs him. If President Harper were after a treasure that was just _slightly_ less obscure and hard to find, that’d be her go to game-plan.

He flips open the pages and begins to take notes. He shifts his right shoulder to move to the other side of the page, and winces in pain. She doesn’t say anything, because it isn’t like he’ll respond anyway. He pushes the side of his jacket over and looks at the wound on the inside of his shirt. Faint, pink stains leak through the white button down he’s wearing.

“Why don’t you let me help you with that?”

He looks up, and shakes his head. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. Just wait until morning when you have to climb something and your skin tears every time you move it.”

“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he replies.

Shepard rolls her eyes. “Fine. You really are stubborn.”

“Or I just don’t necessarily trust your medical care.”

She nods. “I mean, you did prove today that keeping you alive is in my best interest.”

He nods as well, a sense of confidence that doesn’t feel arrogant or like he’s an asshole. He just knows it’s true. 

“And I’ve been hit by one of those flash grenades before. I know they leave behind a hell of a burn. But I figured out some tricks to make it better.”

He finally sighs. “Fine.”

Shepard inches over closer to him, and helps him ease his jacket off his shoulders. His shirt is stained red and pink, with some dirt thrown in there too. She can see where the worst of it is, right in the crook of his shoulder. It likely isn’t too deep, but the kind of superficial wounds that make any kind of moving hard. He’ll have no luck climbing or hiking with something like this raw and unprotected.

She unbuttons a few top buttons and looks inside his shirt. She can’t get a great angle, not unless the shirt comes totally off. But that’s a can of worms she does not want to open. 

“Yeah, looks like a pretty standard burn. I can’t see how far it goes, though. Or how deep it is.”

“Of course you can’t,” he says.

She sighs. “I’m going to need you to take your shirt off.”

“Hell no.”

“Alright,” she says, releasing the fabric between her fingers. She pats it against his chest and moves away. He gasps in pain and clutches the burn through his shirt. She makes out tears springing to his eyes, and he bites down on his lip to push them away. “So deal with that then.”

“God, you are not a nice person.”

“I wasn’t advertised as such. Now, come on… shirt off.”

Kaidan slowly unbuttons his shirt, trying to keep the fabric away from the burn. He pushes one side over, and lets her take the other. She gently moves the shirt off his shoulder and down one arm, and then she orders him to lay down. Immediately, she knows she’s made a bad choice. She should have just left him in pain, or to get some terrible infection. She knew going into this that Kaidan was handsome. He always looked so nice and ruggedly charming in pictures shared in articles on his finds, and it was no shock that he’d picked up a minor celebrity status for his good looks. 

Her cheeks feel hot, and she hopes it doesn’t show on her face. She was so confident this would feel like anyone else she’s done first aid on, viewing them as a goal, or with a series of tasks in mind. It’s just a body that needs fixing. She’ll be fine now, just as long as she doesn’t spend too much time looking at his muscles or at his smooth, olive skin, or the thin trail of hair leading into his pants. Everything will be fine. 

Dear god, it is going to suck so much to have to sell him out.

“Are you planning on helping me, or…?”

“Yeah,” she says, voice cracking slightly. 

He sighs and shakes his head. “I’m not falling for the flirty act again.”

Shepard grabs a cold compress from her bag, and smacks it on her hand, and it quickly cools down. She takes a few thin layers of gauze and pours a sprinkle of water on top of it. He balls his hand into a fist and leans his head back against the dirt. She rests the gauze against the burn on his chest, and rests the cold compress on top. She lays a hand on top of the compress, and he flinches and swallows the pain, but the coolness seems to ease the pain a little bit.

“Better?”

“For now.”

“And here, take this…” she says, tossing a bottle of penicillin pills his way with her free hand. He twists open the cap and reaches for a bottle of water. He downs two pills and shuts his eyes. She can feel his heart pulsing underneath the layers of gauze and cold, and she finds it somewhat soothing. She wonders what they could be like in another world where they didn’t have to be enemies. She thinks that maybe they’d make a killer team. Her brute force and his smarts. They could do great things together, she suspects. 

“How’d you learn to take care of people?” he asks.

“Military. Pretty rudimentary first-aid, but you see some brutal shit. And it sticks with you.”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

“Never really had a jungle crash course, though.”

“Me either,” he says. “There’s a lot of plants I’ve never seen before. Just… trying not to touch them.”

She gives a smile. “We’re out in a jungle with elephants and jaguars and snakes and shit, and you’re scared of plants?”

“You can see an elephant coming a bit better.”

She laughs under her breath, and to her shock, so does he. “I guess there are some bigger threats than a skin rash.”

“You can say that again.”

There’s a moment of quiet, and he takes in a deep breath. “If you were in the military… why would you work for Cerberus now?”

“We’re not having this conversation.”

“It’s an easy question.”

“Why are you out here in the jungle alone looking for treasure you’re not even sure exists?”

“That’s a very different question.

She bites down on her lip. “Because they pay me?”

“No,” he says, “because there’s a difference between getting a paycheck and deciding to work for a crime ring organization.”

“They’re not a crime ring.”

He sits up a little bit. “They have an unimaginable amount of power, they put you up to stealing that artifact, they’ve held up museums, tried to influence elections, — I… What do you call that? You have to know that they’re up to no good.” 

“Kaidan, stop.”

“And you have to know that once they find this treasure, they’re going to use it for themselves—.”

“Shut up!”

He stops, almost looking wounded by her tone.

“Not all of us get to take our desire for adventure and turn it into degrees and academic bullshit like you do. Some of us don’t get that chance. For some of us, the best we can do is the place that pays nicely to keep our head above water. And maybe when this is done, I won’t be totally proud of what I’ve done. But maybe this is the best I can do.”

He swallows and leans back down on the ground. She doesn’t expect his words to hurt so much, because it’s nothing that she hasn’t thought about herself. She knows Cerberus is no good. She knows that if she fails at this, they’ll likely fire her… or make sure no one ever hears from her again. She’s far from in the dark, and she knows who her boss is. But to hear someone say it to her face, someone she _knows_ is good, it burns.

“I… I’m sorry,”he says.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says, shaking her head. 

He’s quiet for a moment, and she cleans up the medical supplies she’d been using before. She shifts her hands off of Kaidan’s chest and lets him take the reins on holding down the ice pack. He sits up a little more and leans against his backpack.

“Was there someone in your life… you know, like my grandma? Someone who made you want to do this?”

There’s a quietness to his voice and she can tell he’s genuinely asking. He’s trying to get to know her, and figure out who she really is. No one’s bothered in a long time. She’s been little more than a title or a ghostly figure that people feared. Her name sends chills down the spines of buyers and smugglers around the world because they know what she can do and what she will do. But no one’s really bothered to ask about anything more than her work in a long time. She feels a knot in her throat and she knows it may not be easy to speak.

“My dad. He was a museum curator. We didn’t have a ton of money, but he’d take me to the museum when I was off from school, and it felt like I got to see the world, even if I didn’t really ever leave.”

“That sounds great.”

“Yeah, it was nice. After he died, I didn’t really have many directions to go.”

He nods. “It’s never too late to change, you know?”

“Easier said than done.”

“I know. But it’s not like it isn’t worth the effort.”

She smiles. “I guess so. Alright, let me take a look at that burn.”

Kaidan removes the cold compress, and Shepard carefully eases off the gauze pad. It comes away slightly bloody, but the swelling has gone down. If he sleeps with the ice pack over his wound, it’ll feel much better by morning. She grabs a new piece of gauze and tapes down three of the four sides, and keeps it loose against his skin.

“Now, sleep with the ice pack, and don’t touch it.”

He nods. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Kaidan reaches for the lantern between them, and flips the switch. It’s dark and he settles against his backpack and jacket as a pillow. She leans back as well, in the opposite direction. She spreads her legs, and finds hers brushing against his. He moves quickly, and scrunches his legs up more. He doesn’t trust her, and maybe he never will. But they can work as a team, and it’s a start and good enough for her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to sneak this one in just under that west coast time wire to get it in on Valentine's Day. Here's where things start to get romantic as heck. Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day and enjoys the new chapter! <3

Morning comes with the chirping of birds, and the distant howls of monkeys. It’s unbearably hot and sticky, and Shepard would kill someone for some AC right about now. Or a shower. But there is something somewhat calming about it. She’s away from the Cerberus goons Harper had put with her, and she’s free to carry out the rest of her goal on her own — mostly. She’s always worked better alone anyway.

Her comm link buzzes in her pocket and she sits up in the tent. It’s been nearly a day since Cerberus has tried to ask her for a progress report, and she still has yet to break it to Cerberus that their men are dead, she’s alone, and she’s joined forces with their common enemy. This’ll be a fun conversation. She scrambles for the front of the tent and unzips it. She turns back to Kaidan, still sleeping soundly up against his backpack. He’s way too good at this, too natural out here in a place where everything is trying to kill them. She wants to know how he sleeps so easily out here… and looks so good doing it.

She steps outside and begins to distance herself from the tent, and once she knows she’s out of earshot, she picks up.

“Good morning, Shepard,” President Harper says on the other end. “How’s the hunt going?”

She hesitates. “It’s going. We had a bit of a hiccup at the first obstacle. The squad is dead.”

He’s quiet for a moment, and then he returns, voice laced with anger. “What do you mean they’re dead?”

“It was a trap, and we fell into it. Wilson, Archer, and Ashe didn’t make it. Finding this treasure is going to require a lot more finesse than a gun and sheer force.”

“I see.”

“There’s also something else you should know. We got through that door with Alenko’s help.”

“What?”

“He showed up and he was able to figure it out and get us through.”

“And then you killed him?”

She shakes her head. “No. I didn’t. Because he knew how to get in without any hesitation and saved me from getting blown up too. He knows what he’s doing. He has the rest of his grandmother’s journal. It got us through the door, and I have no doubts it’ll get us through other obstacles we happen to find along the way. I convinced him to work with me to get closer to the treasure. And then I’ll get the journal from him and I find it before he can.”

“Shepard, I did not approve this plan.”

She knows that crossing her boss is a death sentence for most people. But she isn’t most people. She isn’t just some agent, she’s somebody that matters to Cerberus. And if she’s going to take a risk like this, it’s because she knows it’ll pay off. She just hopes that he sees it that way before he sends a chopper to stop her in her tracks.

“Well, you’re not the one out here in the jungle hunting for something that doesn’t want to be found. I’ll deal with Alenko once the time comes, but right now I need him.”

“What you’re saying to me now is that you can’t do this without him?”

“No, but I-.”

“You are saying you can’t do this.”

“I’m saying that it can’t hurt to use him until we don’t need him anymore. There are two pieces to the puzzle here. The artifact and that journal. Only he has the journal. We were never going to get it until we got close to him. I promise I will get what we need from him.”

Harper is silent for a long moment. “Fine. Report in every morning. I need to know where you’re at and when we can intercept you now that you’ve killed off your whole squad. You let me know when you have that journal.”

She goes to sign off, but finds there’s already no one on the other end. She sighs and slips the comm link back into her pocket, and heads back to the tent before Kaidan can notice she’s gone. When she returns, he’s already taking down the tent and folding the pieces up into his backpack. He turns to her and slides the pack over his shoulders. He’s careful to not irritate the burn on his chest, but the next day or so won’t be easy on him.

“Where to next?” she asks.

“We follow this trail the rest of the way, and then I think we head down into the valley. I think there’s some stairs not too far away that’ll start leading us down.”

She nods. “Okay.”

“Where did you go?” he asks.

She’s quiet a moment. Kaidan knows the score of trusting her. He’s done it before and it didn’t serve him well. He’s fully prepared for her to betray him, and he isn’t wrong. But spending every second with him will make getting anything past him incredibly hard. 

“I just took a walk. Wanted to get my bearings. Explore the area. Why?”

He looks up and shakes his head. “Nothing. I’m just thinking it may be smart of me to know where you are at all times.”

“Like I’m going to stab you in the back or something?”

His expression doesn’t change.

“Right, I guess you have good reason.”

“Yes,” he finishes. “I do. Now let’s move out.”

 

***

The descent is rather easy, just a shambling set of stairs that holds both of them without trouble. It’s not as steep as Kaidan’s expecting, but he’s less than pleased when the base of the mountain pass brings them right back to wide open jungle. So many bugs, so many snakes. So many aggressive and terrible plants.

The pleasant surprise, however, is that this part of the forest seems lived in. It feels as if life was able to exist here at one point. The trees aren’t as thick and he suspects some LIDAR scanning would be able to reveal some amazing finds, things buried under brush and vegetation. He can make out the shapes of rocks ahead, and hopes there’s something more than just boulders and scattered geology around. Even if this isn’t Ilos, even if the treasure isn’t here, it’s still archaeology. It’s still something to find.

“Kaidan?” Shepard asks after a while.

“Yeah?”

He doesn’t particularly want to talk to her, but there’s something earnest about her tone, and it makes him think he can at the very least let her talk. They don’t have to be a team, but hearing a human voice is kind of nice. The jungle can be a very isolating place.

“What will you do when you find it?”

_When_ , he thinks. In some way, it implies that she believes he can do it. 

“Well, I don’t know. I’d have to do a lot of research, a lot of logging our finds, there’ll be plenty of conferences and I imagine lots of press and opening it up to lots of academic critique and debunking—.”

Shepard shakes her head as they meet in stride. “No, no, no… What will _you_ do?”

He pauses and looks down. He supposes he’ll go back to doing what he’s always done, work on the next find, the next paper. He knows he’ll have plenty to write about and document. There’ll be many more late nights in the lab, lots of nights of sweeping away dirt from artifacts. But she’s asking something else.

“I mean,” she continues, “you’ve been after this your whole life. What will you do when it’s found? Or not found? What if it isn’t real?”

“I don’t believe it’s not real.”

“Okay, so if it is… what do you do when you’ve accomplished something you’ve worked your whole life for? Aren’t you going to be fulfilled enough for a lifetime?”

“Sure. But maybe… maybe I just fulfill something else I need.”

Shepard smiles. It’s not like the deceptive smiles she gave him the night they first met, or where she was trying to get something out of him. He has to believe that _this_ is who Shepard is. It was what he was trying to get to last night, but she wasn’t so quick to show it. Nobody can be _just_ their job.

“I mean, damn, you spend thirty years looking for something—.”

“Whoa, thirty years?” he snaps. “How old do you think I am?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “I dunno, I just imagined you at like two, thinking of finding this treasure.”

He shrugs and laughs too. “Alright, well that makes it sound better.”

“What is it you’re still looking for? Aside from this?” she asks, and he has to think a moment. He’s barely picked his head up from his work to think about it. He knows that’s the problem. Neglected partners, sometimes neglected family, not taking enough time to focus on what’s in front of him because he’s worried about proving himself, finding something new. He wonders what he’ll find if he takes a moment to breathe.

“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” he says, and keeps moving forward. It’s quiet for some time and he doesn’t mind it. She follows behind him obediently, helping him clear paths through the brush when he needs to, keeping her guard up when she hears rustling somewhere in the trees. It feels like a partnership, and he isn’t angry about it. Shepard will likely turn him in the second she has the chance, but right now, it just doesn’t feel like she will. He thinks maybe he’s misjudged her.

As they move forward, there’s a clearing, and Kaidan finds himself moving faster. He doesn’t think to look back and see if Shepard’s following, because all he can do is look ahead. He pushes through the remaining brush and steps into the open space. It’s overgrown, and the ruins are badly damaged but the fact that there’s ruins here at all says something lived here. There had been no documented settlements in this part of the jungle, except for the rumors of Protheans. 

He kneels beside a downed frieze and brushes his fingers against the stone. A bit of moss and mud rubs off, and he brushes his hand off on his pants. Below the muck, he finds carvings, clearly man made.

“Shepard, come here,” he says. 

She catches up to him and looks over his shoulder. She squats down next to him as he scrapes off more mud and moss. The carvings continue — runes of some sort — he can’t exactly read them, but he knows he’s looking at something Prothean. 

“Is this Prothean?” she asks.

“It is. See this circular formation?” he says, motioning to the circular structure they’re standing in. “This was some kind of place of public gathering. Maybe a theater, or a forum or something.”

He rushes to take the camera out of his bag, and begins to snap pictures. He takes as many as he can, and slides the camera back in his bag. He flips open the journal and begins to etch down the runes he sees. He’s running through his head all the things he wants to take in, because this is proof that they were here and that they existed. If he can bring someone back here and prove that this is something worth investigating, the world could learn unimaginable things. 

“So they were here,” she says.

He nods. “They were here. And we’re on the right path.This is…”

He leans up against a rock and takes a seat. Shepard takes a seat next to him.

“This is pretty incredible.”

It looks like a lot of rocks in the jungle to the untrained eye, but he’s already visualizing what this all used to be. He can make out houses, political buildings, the remnants of a town, and life. It was clearly small and nothing to the scale of what his grandmother described Ilos being, but it’s a sign of something good.

Shepard looks over at Kaidan and gives a smile. “You happy?”

He nods. “Something like that.”

“It means we’re not doing a half bad job, huh?”

“Yeah. And… so many people told my grandmother she was crazy. She tried to tell everyone what she’d seen, and no one believed an eccentric woman who scoured the jungle for weeks. But this is proof that she wasn’t wrong. She was right about this, about there being proof of life out here, but to see it myself… it feels even more real than when she described.”

He feels his eyes watering and doesn’t want to let Shepard see, so he picks himself up and turns the other way to keep exploring. 

“She’d be proud, Kaidan.”

He’s not expecting her to say that. It’s kind, and genuine, and he doesn’t expect hearing someone say it to impact him in the way that it does. Of course he’d heard it from his parents, from Ashley, or when he’d made great finds before. But he’s proving her right at this moment, and someone else was here to see it.

He smiles and clears his throat. “I hope so.”

“She would be. You said that nobody believed her, and that nobody believed you. But you’re standing here now, and that’s pretty damn incredible.”

He nods. “Yeah, it is. And if she’s right… this is just scratching the surface.”

She rests her hand on his shoulder, and he feels a chill run up his spine. It’s not like the night before when he was afraid for her to touch him, thinking she’d pull a fast one on him and kill him. He likes the feeling of her hands on him, and he’s always known that. But now it’s starting to feel like it doesn’t have to be something he’s ashamed of.

“So, why don’t we go dig a little deeper?”

“I think that sounds like a great plan.”

He logs the location of the site on a map, and sends the coordinates to Ashley through their transmitter. He hasn’t checked in with them since Shepard joined up with him, but they don’t need to know. It’s an unwise choice, and he’s aware of it. He still doesn’t know how he’s going to get Shepard off his trail, because he doubts he can take her in a fight. 

But killing isn’t his thing. It may be hers, and may be her plan to get rid of him, but anything he tries to do is going have to be smart. He just hopes he’s able to figure out his escape before he winds up dead. 

They keep moving, and just before they emerge into thick jungle again, Kaidan stops. 

“Shepard,” Kaidan says.

“Yeah?”

“You see that mountain up there?” he asks, and begins to pull out his grandmother’s journal.

She looks up ahead of them. He knows he’s seen this before, and he flips through his grandmother’s journal until he finds what he’s looking for. It’s a jagged set of lines to look like a peak, and there’s something distinct about the shape. He examines the drawing in the journal and holds it up beside the mountain.

“She talked about a temple on the mountain. She said it was one of the last lookout points for the Protheans, and the Ilos was visible from there. This looks like it, doesn’t it?”

Shepard steps closer, and eyes the two side by side. She nods. “It does. I think that’s got to be the same mountain, but… what are all of these symbols and codes? Is it Prothean? Are those ways in? More puzzles?”

Kaidan swallows, and shakes his head. “No.”

“Okay…”

“You don’t need to know what that is.”

Shepard crosses her arms and nods again. “Then yes, that’s definitely it.”

“So we go that way,” he says, but Shepard holds her hand up to stop him.

“Shh… don’t move.”

“What?”

“We’re being followed.”

“An animal?”

She shakes her head. “No, a person.”

Kaidan’s blood runs cold, thinking it _has_ to be Cerberus. Shepard’s hand comes to the gun on her waist, but she doesn’t pull it just yet. She takes a few steps forward and surveys their surroundings. Kaidan hears rustling somewhere in the trees, but can’t identify where it’s coming from. Shepard pulls her gun out and turns her back to him, and Kaidan gets ready to pull his too. That’s when he feels arms come around his neck.

The grip is strong and tight, and the feeling of stiff fabric against his sweaty and already irritated skin feels raw, and then he realizes he’s struggling to breathe. Shepard turns around and aims her gun at the man holding him. 

“Let him go!” she shouts. “You fuckers couldn’t take my word for it for one day.”

The grip tightens and he struggles against the man holding him. He looks over Shepard’s shoulder to see another one emerging from the brush behind them. He tries to alert her, get her to notice that something’s behind her, but he can’t get words out. He nods his head at her, trying to catch her attention, and finally, she does.

She spins and fires a bullet at the soldier behind her, and he buckles at the knees. He’s not down yet, so she whips her pistol at the side of his head, and kicks him to the ground. He gags on blood, and struggles to get back to his feet. Shepard turns back to Kaidan and aims her gun at the other soldier, but Kaidan knows she can’t get a clear shot in without hurting him in the process. He wonders if she considers that a risk she isn’t willing to take.

Kaidan sees the guard behind her stand up and lunge for her, and he does what he can again to motion. He shoves himself back against the soldier holding him and the grip breaks. He pulls himself free and swings an elbow back, and it collides with the soldier’s head. A jolt of pain runs up his arm, but adrenaline keeps him going. He lands a punch against the soldier’s face, and he goes down, gripping his split open lip. He pulls his gun from his belt and presses his boot to the soldier’s chest, keeping him within eyesight. 

Shepard fires another round into the soldier behind her and he falls to the ground. She comes over to Kaidan and the other soldier, and pulls her gun on him too.

“Who sent you?”

“You know who,” he grunts.

“Why?”

“Because he needed someone to check up on you.”

“Well, now that you did your check up, how am I doing?”

The soldier smiles and spits blood out of the side of his mouth. “He’s not going to like what I have to tell—.”

Shepard fires a bullet into the soldier’s head, and the bang makes Kaidan jump. He doesn’t seem himself as a killer, and doesn’t think he’s capable of it. But he’s learning that maybe he isn’t as affected by seeing death as he thinks he may be.

“I don’t think your boss is going to be too pleased with that,” he says.

“I don’t care. I told him I was going to get the treasure. If he doesn’t trust me, he shouldn’t have hired me.”

She remains as she is for a moment, and Kaidan can feel the raw anger pulsing through her. When he first met Shepard, he thought she was solely loyal to her employer, and that her desire to find the treasure was purely of Cerberus’ making. But the relationship feels rockier than he expected, and he’s beginning to think maybe she won’t be so hard to switch sides. Shepard collects her rage for a moment, and sticks her gun back in the holster.

“You okay?” she asks.

He nods. “Yeah. Fine.”

She eyes him up and down and gives a somewhat proud smile. “You know, you have an intense right hook.”

Kaidan holds up his hand, knuckles bloody and bruising from the punch. “Yeah, I still think it needs a little work.”

Shepard laughs and grips his hand. She brushes her fingers over the cuts and rubs away some of the dirt. “Alright, well, we can practice.”

 

***

Kaidan wanted to sleep under the stars tonight, instead of holding up in a tent. Shepard had to remind him that the ground was full of snakes and bugs and dampness that would probably give him a flesh eating bacteria, but he was somewhat insistent that they stay at the Prothean site overnight. They’d eventually settled on a tent in the middle of the site, elevated on one of the remaining slabs of limestone left behind so avoid the wet ground. As a peace offering, Shepard unzipped part of the flap in front of their tent that way he could somewhat get his way.

He seemed pleased with the idea. It was later when they were sitting around the camp fire, after a few hours of silence that she wants to speak. He’s been logging things in his journal for hours, and his concentration almost seems unbreakable. She hasn’t seen him so at peace since she’s known him. It reminds her that this is _who he is._ It makes her want to show him part of who she is.

“Kaidan?” Shepard starts.

“Yeah, what’s up?” he turns away from the rock he’s been staring at for at least twenty minutes and takes a seat next to her at the campfire.

There’s a knot in her stomach and she feels like a traitor for even thinking these things. Maybe saying them out loud will help, ease that stress and internal tension, but maybe it’ll just make it all feel worse. 

“When you asked my why I would work for Cerberus the other night…”

“Shepard, I didn’t mean to make you angry. I was just—.”

“No. You gave me something to think about,” she says. “Because I didn’t really have an answer. Sure, I didn’t have much when I found them. I was the sole survivor of a botched military operation. No real family, hardly any money to my name. But I was good at getting things done, I was good at killing and at lying and cheating. And they offered me a paycheck for that, kept a roof over my head and kept the cops off my back. It’s not like I chose this, or like I grew up wanting my life to be this way. It just is.”

“I guess I understand that.”

“But I guess I just accepted that. People like me who do bad things work for bad people and keep doing bad things. It’s a vicious cycle. But… well, the past few days have been the first time I felt like I had a handle on any of it. Like I could make my own choices for once.”

“Because you can,” he says, and it sounds so simple when he says it. She glances over at him. He looks incredibly handsome in the light of the campfire. Despite all the dirt and blood caked on his clothes and skin, there’s something so endearing about him. His hair’s a mess and his scruff is starting to come in particularly thick, and it makes her feel weak in the knees, even though they’re sitting.

“Sure, I guess I can. But what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think I see myself working for them forever.”

“Forever?”

“I also don’t know how easy it’d be to just up and quit. But I’m grateful to know you, and to realize these things. I’m not sure I would have had we not ended up on this weird adventure together.”

He smiles. “Yeah, weird adventure is right. I bet you didn’t see us sleeping on the jungle floor next to one another when you were flirting with me at the museum bar.”

_No, but I’m glad I am._

“No, this part has definitely been a plot twist.”

“And thank you,” he adds. “You’ve saved my ass plenty of times out here. Not sure I would have made it on my own had you not shown up.”

In the next two or three days, she’s going to have to betray him. She doesn’t have all the answers yet on how to move forward, but once she does, she knows what she has to do. She’ll take something that not only tells him where to go to find the treasure, but something with immense personal value away from him. And the hardest part is, if she doesn’t get rid of him or throw him off her trail somehow, Cerberus will. And Cerberus won’t do it gently. 

She swallows the knot building in her throat. “Of course.”

“We make a pretty good team.”

“Right, but remember… we aren’t friends.”

He smiles. “Right. Definitely not friends.”

She glances up, and their eyes meet. She’s surprised to find warmth in his expression, warmth that may be directed at her. He’d been so resistant to them working together, to them being friends, but here he is making jokes, and looking at her the way he is. She knows this expression and she knows how good it feels, but she knows that it’s just going to hurt more when she has to let him down.

“I… I think I’m going to head to sleep. You coming?”

He clears his throat and shrugs. “I might take a look around for a little while longer, but go ahead. I’ll be there soon.”

She nods. “Yeah, okay.”

She steps away from the fire and curls up in the tent. It doesn’t take long for her to start drifting off, lulled to sleep by the sounds of the jungle and the faint whispers of Kaidan talking to himself as he pieced through the relics at the site. It’s right as she’s about to fully give into sleep that the tent unzips and Kaidan climbs in with her. He takes his place next to her and kicks off his jacket and boots. He finds a comfortable position and his leg brushes against hers. It sends a chill up her spine and makes butterflies rise in her stomach, but it soothes her just as fast when she realizes this time, he’s not trying to pull away.

 

***

Shepard wasn’t anticipating waking up practically in Kaidan’s arms. She remembered waking up in the middle of the night, cold and somewhat damp and sore, unsettled by the sounds around them and the knowledge that they were in the middle of absolutely nowhere. In her half-asleep daze, she vaguely recalled someone putting a blanket on top of her and moving closer, and feeling drastically more comfortable. But she thought it’d been a dream.

Kaidan sleeps next to her, and she notices that his blanket is barely on him, but draped over her instead. He looks peaceful and unaffected, and _god_ is he close to her. She can feel the warmth radiating off his body, and she wonders if it’d be so bad to curl up next to him and get even closer. She reaches a hand out, wanting to brush away a lock of curly hair out of his face, but she knows she can’t do that. It’s something reserved for lovers, not enemies. It’s something that someone who can actually be good to him deserves to do. Not her.

She can’t feel this way, not now. No matter how she feels, she knows what she has to do, and the less she cares for him, the easier it’ll be.

She pulls away before she can get carried away any further, and slides out of the tent. It’s just about time for her daily check in with Cerberus, and this time, she has something to say. She has something she needs them to know. She wanders out of earshot and dials them through the comm link. Someone picks up on the other end.

“Shepard?”

“Yep, checking in for our daily chat.”

President Harper laughs under his breath. “Right. Chats. So, are you at the treasure?”

“No. But we’re getting close. The journal mentions something about a temple on a mountain, and we’ve found the mountain. Kaidan tells me it’s a two day hike from here.”

“Two days, huh?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t seem like that’s where the treasure is, but it’s a point where we may be able to lose him. Get what we need and find this on our own.”

“That is what I like to hear, Shepard.”

“I know.”

“Alright, well, we’ll be waiting to hear from you when you reach a point for interception. You better have a plan of what to do with Alenko.”  
Her blood runs cold, and she bites down on her lip. “I wanted to talk to you about that.”

“Oh?”

She takes a look back at the tent, checking to make sure Kaidan’s not waking up or looking for her. When the coast is clear, she continues.

“I need you to promise me you won’t hurt him.”

There’s a pause and then laughter, something soft and evil. Something that makes her think Kaidan’s just in more danger. 

“Oh, Shepard… you’re not feeling things for him, are you?”

Her eyes water, and she’s so grateful they can’t actually see her. “No. But he’s a good man and he doesn’t deserve to get hurt. If anything happens to him, I can’t guarantee my loyalty to you. And you will have to find this treasure on your own.”

“No, I’ll have to hire someone new who I can trust to do their job. I thought that person was you. Don’t prove me wrong, Shepard.”

He hangs up, and she’s left in silence. She wonders if it was a mistake to make such a request, but she knows she had to try. 

She makes her way back to the tent, and slides in. Kaidan’s still asleep, and he’s barely stirred since she left. She eases herself back down next to him, and reaches a hand out again. This time, she finds it so hard to resist touching him. She rests her hand against his cheek, and strokes her thumb along his cheekbone. His skin is soft, and the scruff building up along his cheeks is rough, but he feels just right. He doesn’t respond, and remains fast asleep. She knows she needs to wake him soon, because they’re going to lose daylight if they sleep in, but she can’t help but feel like maybe a few more minutes of this is exactly what they both need.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaand here comes the drama!! I hope you guys enjoy, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Kaidan remembers his grandmother telling him about the temple. He was six when she first sat him down and told him what happened when she reached the front of it. She said she’d never felt so much power and faith run through her. Not quite faith in whatever gods the Protheans worshipped, but a faith that they were real and that the treasure was real. When they approach the clearing ahead of them, he knows what she means immediately. 

The trees give way to a large courtyard before a sprawling temple built into the side of a mountain. Kaidan can make out small square landforms that he knows used to be huts or stores, and a set of stairs rising to the cloud line. The stairs are overgrown and crumbling, but they look intact enough to climb, and they lead to a single open archway at the very top. 

His legs ache and his muscles burn, but he knows it’s like running a marathon. If he stops now, he won’t be able to pick back up. But there’s something stronger motivating him, the knowledge that they’ve made it this far and that they’re about to set foot into what his grandmother described as one of the most harrowing moments of her life. 

“This is it,” he says. 

Shepard stops behind him and looks up. She props her foot up on a rock and takes in the temple before them. Even she seems impressed. He can feel her starting to take interest in all of this, like each thing he points out along the way she’s actually absorbing and learning to love just like he does. And he can tell in her eyes right now that she’s never seen anything like this, and that maybe she thinks she’s lucky to be here. 

“Wow. I mean, how do you carve this into a mountain? It’s not like they just hammered out a door and called it a day. This is intricate, and beautiful.”

“I could go into explaining it for you, but I have a feeling you—.”

“Might still think the aliens did it? Yeah, probably.”

“Yeah, almost exactly that.”

She laughs under her breath and takes a moment to catch her breath. “Alright, well, let’s get moving then.”

They start making their way up the crumbling stairs, and Kaidan extends an arm out behind him for her. She takes it and grips onto his belt loops as they start to climb. The rocks slide out from under them with each bit of weight, but Kaidan shows her the keys to finding the steadiest hand and foot holds. When they reach the top, he pulls her up to his level, and they both take a seat on the top step. 

The view casts across the entire jungle, and Kaidan finds it hard to believe they’ve managed to hike through the lush vegetation. So much of the forest is completely uncharted, and he thinks he may have been one of the first to have this exact view. Shepard passes him her canteen and lets him take some of her water. It’s a small gesture, but it feels like something two people who were a team would do. He didn’t want to bring it up, but he was fully aware of her snuggling closer to him the other morning, and he felt her hand on his cheek. She wanted to be close to him just as much as he wanted to be close to her. 

“Did you ever think you’d be here?” she asks.

“No. Not really. I dreamed of it, and hoped one day I could make it happen, but I didn’t think it was attainable. Or that by the time I got here there’d be nothing left.”

“Well, I think there’s plenty here. And we haven’t even gone inside.”

Kaidan nods. “Yeah. Shepard, there’s something you should know. My grandmother didn’t give many notes of this temple. She described the outside and some of what we might find, but it’s not as detailed as say when we needed to solve the puzzle on the other door, or some of the other stuff to come. She said that what happened in here happened too fast for her to absorb what she even did.”

“Oh good.”

“I know. I’m just warning you. We’re going to have to work together to get through this.”

She nods. “Alright. Then let’s do this.”

She stands and holds out a hand for him, pulling him up to her. they make their way through the small opening and into the small room at the top of the temple. It’s there that Kaidan notices the smell. There’s a thick fog of death covering what feels like every inch of the room. The air smells metallic and like blood, and he turns on his flashlight. The back wall of the room is lined with skulls, all donning chipped and dissolving paint. 

“Gross,” Shepard mutters. 

“There’s got to be a door somewhere. This can’t be where it stops.”

“How would we find a door?”

“I don’t know. Give me a second.”

He thumbs through the journal, and he spots Shepard’s eyes on it. He reaches his grandmother’s drawing of the temple and begins to read carefully. He looks back up at the wall and it comes together. 

“Shepard, you see that skull with the handprint over the face? Put your left hand over it.”

“There’s so many symbols, how do you —.”

She places her hand over it at the same time Kaidan places his hand on top of a nearly identical one on the opposite wall. Something begins to hum in the room, and she turns to him, shocked. 

“Now what?”

“Push, and be ready for whatever is thrown at you.”

She swallows and nods. “Okay.”

They both push into the wall at the same time. The wooden thatching gives way beneath their feet, and Kaidan doesn't have time to grab onto anything before they’re both falling. He slides down a slick stone ramp, and he knows Shepard’s falling too, just not how close to him.The stones scrape away at his skin and he reaches for his head to cover it. The sounds of them falling widen, as if they’re about to reach a larger chamber of some sort. 

He hears a splash at the end of the tunnel and hopes Shepard’s landed safely in water, and that she hasn’t found any traps. He doesn’t get more than a moment to think about it before he hits water as well, and several large boulders that have made a home at the bottom of the reservoir. The impact strikes him worst on his left side, and he can’t tell if what he’s heard is the crack of his ribs or another splash, but he isn’t sure he can breathe.

The pain courses through him and he struggles to pull himself to the surface, but thankfully he doesn’t need to. Shepard’s arms take hold and she pulls him above water. She eases him against a rock where the water is just ankle deep. She turns on her flashlight and places it between them.

“You okay?”

He nods. “I guess so.”

She looks down at his shirt, where a small washed out red stain continues to grow. He rests his fingers over it and dabs at the tender area. He doesn’t feel anything poking out, or protruding, so he assumes he’s safe enough for now. 

“You sure?”

Kaidan pulls himself to his feet, but breathing burns and he finds he needs a few seconds to get his air. He gasps and reaches out to Shepard for help moving. She slides an arm around his back and lets him favor his right side. After a few steps, moving grows easier, and he can walk on his own.

“Now, where are we?” she asks.

“I don’t know. It dropped us down somewhere, but this feels like the only place we could have gone.”

“It looks like just a straight hallway.”

Kaidan shakes his head. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s never just a straight hallway. Follow me. Very slowly.”

Shepard raises her flashlight and skims the walls for any traps or protrusions in the walls, something that might be there to sabotage them. It’s several steps in that Kaidan holds up his hand and bends to the ground. His torso throbs as he bends over, but he finds a small rock in the rushing water and clutches it. He hesitatesmoment, and tosses it. As he does, several steel blades eject from the walls, right where they’d have been standing a few steps later.

“How did you know that was going to happen?”

“Those slots in the walls. They’re to hold _something.”_

The blades remain in place, but slowly begin to reset into the walls. As they’re moving back to their positions, Kaidan reaches behind her and takes Shepard’s hand and guides her through after him. They weave between the blades as the echo of gears spinning in the walls. On the other side, Shepard stands directly beside Kaidan.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but he doubts that’s an exit. Not this early. He guides Shepard forward just slightly further when they see something slumped against the wall ahead of them. 

“Kaidan, is that?”

“Looks like a body. Can I see your flashlight?”

She nods and passes it to him. Sure enough, a badly decomposed body rests against one of the hallway walls, and Kaidan makes out broken ribs, with sharp fractures as if struck by something. He eyes the hallway and looks up at the ceiling. Large spikes hang on a plank of wood just above them. It explains the broken ribs, and the body. 

Kaidan reaches for the body, carefully, and tugs away a femur. The leg comes away easily with no signs of flesh, just weathered down smooth bone. It makes the idea of grabbing a skeleton’s leg a lot easier to swallow.

“Shepard, get down.”

“Why?”

“I need to trigger the trap.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be fine.”

She hesitates a moment, and rests herself down on the ground. Kaidan looks around and tries to find the source of the trap, and then finds it — a nearly invisible thread at shoulder level. He thinks it’s a smart trap, tricking the trespassers while their eyes were likely skimming the ground. Then, a second thread at their feet. The Protheans covered all of their bases.

He crouches about halfway down and extends the leg out just enough. It brushes against the string and he hears a creaking sound from above. He ducks to the ground and slides an arm over Shepard as the trap releases. Kaidan feels the rush of air above him, and the soft creaking as the plank of wood swings back and forth. He eases himself up, and carefully guides Shepard around the loose trap.

“Thank god we’re out of the—,” she begins, and then something begins to move above them, “god dammit!”

Kaidan looks up as jagged blades on the ceiling begin to wiggle their way down the hallway. The blades continue until the opening at the end. It’s a long way to run while not knowing what was on the other side, or even two steps in front of them.

“We need to move,” Shepard says.

“Move _carefully_ ,” he insists.

“There’s no time for that!”

She grips his arm and tugs him forward. As they near the end of the hallway, the dropping speeds up, and Kaidan swears he can feel the knives brushing against the top of his hair. He swears he hears the planks lowering at unreliable rates, and wonders if there’ll be one fatal drop and they’ll both be dead. 

“Hurry!” she shouts from several steps ahead.

He watches her emerge from the hallway, and picks up his pace. She grabs his arm and tugs him to safety, just as the gears slip and the blades come crashing down right where his head would have been.

Shepard sighs and shuts her eyes. “The Protheans were some sick fucks.”

“They didn’t want to be found.”

“Yeah, but this is excessive.”

He smiles and helps her off the ground. A pain tugs at his side with every movement.

“Tell me again what your grandmother claims is at the top of this murder temple?”

They begin to move slowly through the standing water toward the next chamber. “The top has a view that she claims gives clear sight to Ilos, which is the lost city many believe the treasure is in. No one’s ever found Ilos before, no one aside from her, as far as we know. So to track it down or have _any_ idea of where it’s exact location is would be a huge help.”

“Right. Though, still more trekking through the jungle?”

“Yeah, more of that. You getting fed up with it?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, but I could so go for a really long shower.”

“You and me both. Maybe the treasure will be bountiful enough for us both to take a spa day.”

“I don’t think Cerberus would see that as a priority. It’d be onto the next job for me.”

“Right. Unless you quit and did your own thing.”

She laughs under her breath. “Yeah, like what?”

“I don’t know. You aren’t half bad at this treasure hunting thing.”

“You’re doing all the work. I’m just here to be muscle.”

“Every expedition needs muscle, you know. Someone to fight the bad guys, move heavy rocks, look cool doing it. God knows _I_ don’t look too cool.”

Shepard laughs again. “You got that right.”

Kaidan reaches over and shoves her arm. “You didn’t have to agree.”

They approach the next small chamber, and both of them draw their flashlights to the walls. Kaidan rests his hands against a few oddly shaped limestone fragments, and pushes against them to see if there’s any give. What he finds is that they spin, and each side is marked with an unidentifiable symbol. He vaguely recognizes the symbols as Prothean, but can’t identify what they mean. 

“Alright, so these turn. We just need to know what the symbols are.”

“Did your grandmother give any clues?”

Kaidan nods and pulls out the journal. He flips to the pages where she documented her time in the temple, and finds symbols that vaguely resemble the ones on the walls. He knows this must have been done from memory, but he hopes she’s right. 

He spins the limestone cylinders to match what she’s given him, and hears a click. But nothing else. He alters the pattern, and the cylinders click out of place. 

“I don’t understand. Nothing’s happening.”

“It sounds like something is, but something’s stopping it. Try it again,” Shepard says.

He spins the symbols back into place, and then he hears it. There’s a click, and a slight grating sound as if something was barricading the other side. 

“You’re right. There’s got to be another way through.”

“I don’t know about that.”

Shepard steps away from the door, and begins to skim the room. Kaidan pushes at the door slightly more, and rocks begin to crumble nearby. He turns and flashes his light on the source of the noise. A small hole has opened at the base of the wall, way smaller than he can fit into. It looks like a half a passageway, but it’s a way forward.

Kaidan crouches beside it and eyes the dimensions. He doubts he can fit, but he’d feel terrible making Shepard go through the passage because he couldn’t.

“I feel a draft. I think it might lead to the next room, but won’t open all the way. I can try to get in there and see what’s on the other side.”

Shepard shakes her head “You’d never fit.”

“I can squeeze.”

“How about you let me go, and I’ll see if there’s another way through. Or find something to knock down this wall with?”

Kaidan swallows. “I don’t want to make you do that.”

“Let me.”

He finally nods, and Shepard crouches down to slide into the small passage way. He stays crouched on the ground, trying to keep an eye on her as close as he can. The tunnel is pitch black except for Shepard’s flashlight and he can tell she’s not enjoying the trip.

“How’s it looking?”

“I think I can see part of the problem. Looks like there’s a huge rock blocking part of the exit on the tunnel, and it might be extending all the way to the door. I can try to push it.”

“Alright, just be careful.”

He hears sounds of a struggle near the end of the passage way, like Shepard’s busy pushing and trying to move rocks. He thinks she’s still in the passage way, not out in an open chamber. Something huge shifts on the other side and the door begins to move. A small door opens beneath the cylinders, and this one Kaidan is positive he can crawl through. But then he notices all the water rushing. And he doesn’t hear Shepard.

“Shepard?” he calls out, but there’s no response. 

He looks for the rock she described, but doesn’t fine one loose. He hears splashing coming from nearby, but he can’t tell if it’s just the rushing water or if Shepard’s somewhere needing help. He moves toward the sound of the noise, and finds a small hole, currently blocked by another small mountain of stones that have collapsed in all the shifting. 

He begins to pull away at them, and tries to clear a path. There’s still no sign of Shepard, and he knows she has to be in here somewhere. She couldn’t have just vanished. He tugs away rock after rock, even ones he doubts he can lift. Adrenaline courses through him, and he clears the entire passageway. 

He dips his head underwater and flashes his light on the passageway. The flashlight catches a glimmer of red hair in the completely filled tunnel. He sees Shepard struggling to free herself from something in the tunnel, and reaches an arm out for her. He grips her hand and begins to tug, but something doesn’t come loose. The panic makes her take in water and he pulls at her arm harder. 

He knows he has to act before he can feel anything. With a final tug, he’s able to free her from the tunnel. She feels like deadweight but pulls her out of the narrow tunnel and into the open water. He pulls her to the surface and carries her out of the way of the rushing water as quick as he can. His ribs throb something terrible, trying to support her weight, but he finds a slab of dry rock and rests her there. He climbs out of the water and slides a hand behind her head. 

She’s clearly hit her head, and he can’t tell yet if she’s breathing. He makes out some bleeding on her leg, as if perhaps something had collapsed on it in the tunnel. It explains her being trapped. He brushes his hand against her cheek and gives her a gentle shake, to which she doesn’t respond. Her lips are slightly blue, and he doesn’t know how long she was under the water for. He can’t have this happen, not when it was his job to get her out. She volunteered to make the swim since _he_ couldn’t fit. 

“Shepard, hey. Come on, talk to me.”

He slides his fingers to her neck and catches the faint humming of a pulse, thankfully. He tilts her head to the side, and presses his hands against her chest. He gives a few compressions, as carefully as he can. It takes several presses before he senses anything happening, but finally she begins to cough and spits up water onto the rocks. He lets out a sigh of relief and lets her lean up against him as she attempts to sit up. She rests her head against his shoulder and shuts her eyes. He runs his hand up and down her back as she regains her air, and he feels her grip slightly at the fabric of his shirt. 

“It’s okay,” he whispers, and he feels her nod into his shoulder. 

She coughs on remaining water a few more times, and dabs at the cut on her head. She winces at the pain, but ultimately simply rubs the blood away with the back of her palm, as if just a dumb inconvenience.

Finally, she begins to struggle out words. “Your — the ink in the journal is definitely going to run.”

He laughs, so grateful to hear her voice. He grips her tighter. “Don’t worry, I had it waterproofed.”

“Oh, good.”

He brushes his hand against her cheek, and tilts her face to the side to look at the cut on her head. It’s superficial, and she’s likely not concussed. 

She’s quiet again, and she slowly turns to him once she can sit up on her own. She rests her hands on his thighs and keeps her eyes down. Her thumbs gently brush the damp fabric of his jeans. 

“You came back for me,” she whispers.

“Of course I did. The second I knew that the passage was jammed, I knew I had to do something.”

He thinks he might see the glimmer of tears lining her eyes. She sniffles them away and takes her hands off of him. She doesn’t give a thank you, but he knows it’s what she means. It’s enough for him. Maybe it’s all someone in her position can give.

“You good to walk?”

She nods. “Yeah. Are you?”

She looks down at the small bloodstains on his shirt and he gives a nod too. “Yeah, we’ll just have to try and take it somewhat easy.”

She nods and pulls herself to her feet after him.

The interior of the next chamber is vast, with what looks like an ancient elevator at the far end of the wall, and a giant water wheel powering it. It explains the sudden influx of water. The walls are covered in religious artwork, and this was clearly the center of a holy site when the Protheans used it. He knows that there’s millennia of history down here, but marking the sites for study and coming back later is his best bet. Especially now, with potentially broken ribs, and a hell of an adrenaline rush. 

“This is beautiful,” Shepard says.

“Yeah. This is really something. We could learn so much from this.”

“If only someone’s willing to sneak through all those traps to get here.”

“There’s got to be a back entrance, I’m sure.”

Shepard rolls her eyes. “Good, we just _chose_ the hard one.”

He smiles. “Who doesn’t love a challenge?”

They approach the elevator and Kaidan looks up. It’s a straight shot to an opening, and while the elevator looks like its seen better days, it doesn’t look entirely unreliable. He thinks he’s lived in apartment buildings with elevators he’s trusted less. 

“After you, ma’am,” he says.

She glances up at him. “We’re getting on this thing?”

“Yes.”

“I think I’d rather take the stairs.”

“There aren’t any. This is our way up.”

“How are you so sure up is the right way?”

“It looks like the only exit out of here.”

Shepard sighs. “Fine. But if this comes crashing down and kills us, it’s your fault.”

He shrugs and grips the pulley system on the back side of the elevator. “If we live long enough for there to be blame, sure, knock yourself out.”

He begins to move the pulleys up and gears echo to life above them. He hears them come loose and a few things crack and fall, with a small flurry of dust raining down on them, but then the elevator begins to move. Kaidan raises them up as much as he can before the pain in his sides becomes nearly too much to bear. He motions for Shepard to take over for a few seconds while he catches his breath. He’s quickly astounded by how fast she raises them to the top. He watches as the muscles in her arms work so easily and steadily, and he’s enamored by how strong she is. 

The elevator hits the top and Shepard knots the ropes tightly as they step off the platform and onto a small, damp set of stairs. Kaidan feels a breeze, and he’s thrilled to breathe fresh air again, and even more excited to see what the top of the peak has to offer them. His grandmother’s writings described a direct line of sight to Ilos, but Kaidan finds it so hard to imagine seeing anything through the thick vegetation. But he knows if he can see it, they must be close, and he’ll be able to chart a way through the forest to get there. 

No one has ever documented Ilos — not academically — before, and there’s such heated debate into whether or not the lost city _ever_ existed. He’s always felt as though Ilos was on par with an Atlantis or El Dorado, but no one dared to explore for it or study it in the same way. The bookish part of him that misses warm showers and his bed is already fantasizing about the paper’s he’s going to get to write later.

Shepard follows Kaidan up the stairs toward the light and they reach an opening. The stairs release them on a sharp ledge with little more than overgrown vines and a view of trees, but as Kaidan moves forward to the edge, he sees it. It can’t be more than a mile or two in front of them, but a clearing emerges, and he sees a myriad of what looks like buildings, and structures carved into mountains and rock faces, and the remains of what looks like a city.

He swallows and tries to take it all in. Growing up, he’d put so much thought and imagination into thinking of what Ilos would look like. He imagined something more dramatic, like skyscrapers made of stone and mosaic tiles, or strange futuristic flying cars, and treasure covering every open surface. This is so far from that, but it feels better. What he can see of Ilos is a city lost to time, and a place few have set their eyes on. He’s learned part of archaeology is filling in the blanks. He knows it’s usually never finding the entire puzzle put together, few things left perfectly preserved, but he finds an enjoyable pleasure in seeing the framework and inferring the rest of the picture.

“Is that…?”

Kaidan nods. “Yeah. That’s Ilos.”

“She was right. _You_ were right.”

His eyes water and he doesn’t want Shepard to see this side of him again. She already has at various points in their journey and she knows what this means to him. But this feels so monumental he isn’t sure if he has coherent and smart words for it.

“Yeah… we were. I’m gonna… uh… document this, get some numbers down. Hang on.”

He pulls out his journal and begins to chart a simple map of what he sees. Ilos lies east of them, further into the forest and it’ll be hard to know what the landscape is until he begins to move through it, but he can at least document the figures and structures he sees ahead. He takes notes as thorough as he possibly can.

Shepardlets him take the moment in for some time, and his focus only breaks when he feels her rest her hand on the bottom of his back. It’s something so gentle, so subtly romantic that it sends chills up his spine. It feels like companionship. She’s been on this journey with him, and there are parts of it that he could not have done without her. She’s been helpful, and she’s been nice to have along — despite everything. Maybe she has changed her ways and maybe she knows that Cerberus isn’t worth working for. Perhaps they could be a team.

“Can I see?”

He passes her the journal and she studies the drawings and notes he’s done, and she gives a faint smile. 

“You did good, Kaidan. She’d be proud.”

He nods. “I know. She’ll be prouder when we make it all the way there.”

She pulls him into a hug, and it catches him off guard. It doesn’t change how nice it feels and the fact that it makes his cheeks flush with warmth. She holds him gently, minding the bruising on his ribs, and rests her head at the center of his chest. She grips him tightly for a moment, and then slowly pulls away. She keeps her arms around his shoulders and looks up.

He’s told himself not to fall for this again, not to fall for her. It’s already clear she’s a con-artist, and that she’ll hurt him again when she gets the chance. But it still feels hard to imagine now. He believes there’s something more to her. There’s got to be. The person he’s seen these past few days can’t be the same as the one he first met. 

Having her this close _feels_ good, and it feels right. He can’t stop looking at her lips and wondering what they feel like, or what it feels like to touch her in a way that’s romantic. He doesn’t find himself thinking about her physically, aside from being impressed by her skills and strength, but with her looking at him like this and moving closer like this, he can’t help but wonder what it would all feel like. Her thumb brushes his cheek and she begins to lean in when a small squad of men come up the stairs they just came from. He recognizes the logo on their armor as the same one on the business card Shepard gave him when they first met, and the armor of the soldiers Cerberus sent after them. They’re led by a polished looking man in hiking clothes that clearly aren’t meant for someone like him. He knows this has to be The Illusive Man that the Alliance had mentioned.

And then he realizes that he doesn’t have the journal. Shepard does.

“Well done, Shepard. This almost makes up for you killing several of my men in your poor attempts to track down this treasure.” 

Shepard keeps her eyes down and her hand on her gun holster. Kaidan has to wonder if Cerberus is ambushing both of them, or if at some point while he wasn’t paying attention, Shepard had sold him out. The look on Shepard’s face says it’s probably the second. There’s guilt in her eyes, and something that feels genuinely sad.

“Now, hand it over.”

She looks up at him, and her eyes say “I’m sorry”, but it doesn't make much of a difference. It doesn't change what’s about to happen. He could take it back from her now, but he’d run the risk of these Cerberus soldiers taking him out before he could even move. He could try to convince her to take the journal and run off with him, and they’d find the treasure together. But he knows it’ll just end with them both dead. 

“Shepard, you don’t have to do what he says. You could walk away from this and we could find the treasure. Just you and me.”

She swallows, and he knows it’s what she wants, but there are so many things out of her control right now. She opens her mouth to speak but The Illusive Man interrupts her.

“Shepard, if you think for a minute that I won’t kill you _and him_ for that journal, you’d be wrong,” The Illusive Man taps on the gun holstered at his waist. Shepard doesn’t flinch, but Kaidan takes a step in front of her, shielding her with his body. Shepard rests her hand on his waist and moves him aside, as if she doesn’t accept him risking his life for her. He understands why, and he hopes it means she’s still someone he can reason with. Despite everything, despite this betrayal and how badly it hurts, she’s still the person he wants at his side when he finds the treasure. He can’t figure out why.

“Shepard,” he starts, “You have a choice—.”

As he tries to finish his sentence, a Cerberus soldier grabs his arms and pulls him away and presses a cold, jagged blade against the base of his throat. He fidgets to get away, and feels the sharp cut of the knife against his skin, just a warning that they won’t hesitate to kill him. Shepard grips her gun from her holster and aims it at the head of the soldier holding him, and The Illusive Man draws his guns and aims it at her.

“You said you’d leave him out of this,” Shepard says. There’s anger in her voice, raw betrayal. There’s something to be feared in her tone of voice. “You want this journal? You let him go first.”

Her words don’t feel like a request, but a command. He’s seen what she can do to Cerberus troops, and he senses the only thing keeping her from doing anything is knowing that he’ll die if she does.

“No, you give me the journal, and then we’ll _discuss_ what we do with him. I don’t think you want to play with his life like this,” The Illusive Man says, and the soldier holding Kaidan presses the blade against his throat tighter. “He means nothing to me, and I’d lose no sleep over shooting him now and leaving him to die. Remember that.”

Shepard flinches at his words, and shuts her eyes. She toys with the journal in her hands, and she can’t even look at Kaidan when she steps over to The Illusive Man and passes it to him. The Illusive Man eagerly takes it from her and flips through the pages. His eyes take in the drawings and charts he’s made with a blind excitement. Kaidan shuts his eyes and shakes his head. It’s not just the information, it’s the memories. It’s knowing that he came so close and was able to lose all of the wisdom his grandmother had given to him.

The Illusive Man thumbs through the pages and gives a smile. “Perfect. This is what we’ve needed all along.”

Shepard steps closer toward Kaidan. “Now let him go.”

“I just don’t think we can do that,” The Illusive Man says, and meets eyes with the soldier holding Kaidan. The soldier throws him to the ground, and a jolt of pain rushes through his body. Rocks dig into the palms of his hands and the pain in his ribs throbs so hard he doesn’t know if he can breathe. He makes an attempt to stand up, but instead, the soldier brings the butt of his gun down against the side of his head. He hears and feels a crack that just _has_ to be his skull. Kaidan sees stars, and he can’t hear anything for a moment, just the faint sounds of Shepard shouting. The side of his head feels warm and raw, and a sharp pain cuts through his cheek. He shuts his eyes and feels himself fading into darkness, and then quickly coming back.

He forces his eyes open and picks himself up from the ground. He brings a hand up to the side of his face. His shaking fingers come away red, and he feels sick.

“You don’t need to do this!” she shouts. “We have everything we need, and there’s no point in killing anyone. You’ve already won.”

“I can’t run the risk of him following us—.”

“Look at what you’ve done,” she hisses. “He’s not going to be able to follow us anywhere. We go, we get a head start, and we find the treasure. And I will help you. Just let him go.”

The Illusive Man is quiet for a moment, and the silence makes Kaidan weave in and out of consciousness. His brain feels like it’s about to slide out of his skull and he can taste blood in his mouth and wonders if his face is still there. He can only focus on Shepard for now, as if it’s the only thing that keeps bringing him back to coherency. She looks down on him with such concern, with such raw surprise. She had tried to make sure this didn’t happen, that’s clear, and she wasn’t emotionally prepared when it did. Her eyes are coated with tears and anger, and he wonders what she’ll do to Cerberus when the inevitable happens.

He can’t even think about what he feels about dying because the pain is just too great.

“ _Please,_ ” she begs. “Don’t hurt him anymore.”

The Illusive Man snaps his fingers and the guard above Kaidan swings his pistol again. This time, Kaidan knows he’s not getting up. The warm feeling on the side of his head spreads down his face and neck and he can’t move at all. He tries to focus on breathing, and then he feels Shepard’s hands on him.

“No, no, no. Stay with me. God, please don’t go. Just hang on, please.”

She runs her fingers through the undamaged side of his head and finds his pulse with the other hand. He knows it’s slow and she grows more panicked when she realizes the same thing. She mutters curse words under her breath, and for a moment, he can open his eyes. He sees The Illusive Man hovering behind her, gun still drawn. He wants to warn her to back away, to just leave him and go find the treasure, and stop Cerberus along the way. She begins to search his body for something. He wishes there was something he could say to her, some kind of goodbye, but he can’t move. All he can do is feel her presence and do nothing as she thinks he’s going to die. She takes something from one of his pockets and he doesn’t know what.

“Shepard!” The Illusive Man shouts. “Leave him. He’s just got minutes left anyway.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, and he swears he can hear her sniffling away tears. He senses her moving closer, her lips just above his forehead as if to kiss him. Something warm drips onto his skin, and she keeps a hand on his chest so gently. 

Her shaking hands brush her thumb along his cheek and she slowly pulls herself away as he slips into darkness.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The drama continues! Enjoy the cliffhanger, friends ;)

When Kaidan wakes up, he knows he’s not in the jungle anymore. The air is not nearly as humid, and there’s no soft pelting of rain on his body, and he feels tight bandages wrapped around his head and torso. His head still aches and it feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. There’s an unbelievable feeling of nausea in his stomach and he wonders if he’ll be able to keep it together if he tries to sit up. Though, he’s glad he’s sleeping on a cot and not the cold jungle floor. 

“He’s waking up,” Ashley says.

If Ashley’s here, he must be back at HQ. He must have _somehow_ gotten back to Terminus and gotten help. He knows he sure as hell didn’t get here himself. He must have been airlifted and extracted or _something_. It just doesn’t make sense. He certainly doesn’t remember it. 

He feels Ashley grip one of his hands and her other hand checks his pulse. Her hands feel so warm, and he feels so cold and weak that it makes the nausea worse. He lets out a soft whimper of pain and tries to move. His ribs had hurt badly in the temple and as they made their way to the top of the peak, but nothing like they do now.

Now that he has the time to think about it, he presumes that the pain has time to get to his head. 

“Kaidan, don’t move if you can’t. It’s okay,” she whispers.

His eyes flutter open and the light burns. Another wave of nausea takes him over. He shudders in pain and closes his eyes again. He takes a few seconds to breathe before trying again, and this time, he forces his eyes to stay open through the pain and overstimulation. It feels good to see Ashley again, and James hovering just behind her. He has no idea how it made it back there, but he’s grateful he did. He would have surely died out in the jungle by himself.

He pushes himself up as much as he can. He notes that his clothes are different — changed out of the wet jeans and button down he was in before in favor of a fresh pair of pants and a white undershirt that’s hiding the stiff, tight bandages around his chest. He forgot what it felt like to feel reasonably clean.

Ashley offers him a bottle of water and a few painkillers, which he happily takes. He finishes half the bottle of water and manages to sit up the rest of the way. He begins to feel stable again, like he can keep his eyes open without them burning and he feels less at war with his head, like he’s confident he can stay conscious this time. He leans himself against the meager frame of the bed.

“What happened?” he struggles out.

Both Ashley and James hesitate, until finally Ashley manages to speak. There’s more fear in Ashley’s voice than he expects. “Your extraction alert went off. It took us a little too long to find the peak, but we found you unconscious at the top of it, just barely hanging on. We got you back here as fast as we could. The local doctor came by and watched over you for a while, said you’d pull through. It was pretty touch and go for a bit.”

James clears his throat. “You have two cracked ribs and a mild concussion. Amazing it wasn’t somehow worse considering —.”

“Considering what?”

“How bad your face looks,” Ashley finishes.

“Oh.”

“He doesn’t mean it to be rude,” Ashley assures him.

Kaidan shrugs as much as he can. “I don’t doubt it.”

He draws a hand up to the side of his head, and he feels several stitches padded down with medical tape and fresh bruises under his skin. He can imagine what it looks like — a canvas of purple and blue and maybe some yellow and brown around the edges. He’s sure there’ll be some scars leftover, but he’s amazed that the culmination of his injuries didn’t kill him.

The two of them are quiet again before: “Kaidan, what the hell happened out there?”

He swallows, and it burns, and he finds he doesn’t know where to start. “We got ambushed.”

“We?”

_Oh,_ he thinks, _I never told them about the Shepard part._

He nods. “Yeah. I… early on, I bumped into Cerberus. Shepard, actually, and I helped them get through one of the trap doors, and I convinced Shepard to work with me.”

“You did _what?_ ” Ashley snaps. “Shepard, like the one who stole the relic from you? The one who threatened to kill you?”

“Yes, that one.”

“And you wanted to work with her?”

“No,” he starts. “I wanted my enemies close. If I worked _with_ her, I could find a way to outsmart her, and get back the relic and get Cerberus off my ass. She and I were together nearly the whole time. We’d made good progress, and we finally set our eyes on Ilos. We were so close. And… when we got to the top of the peak, Cerberus ambushed us.”

He hesitates a moment, very slowly. “She has the journal.”

“Shit,” James mutters.

Ashley buries her face in her hands and shakes her head. “You should have never trusted her.”

Something bubbles in his chest, and he knows he’s going to say something stupid, but he can’t stop it. If he remembers anything, he remembers the way she’d reacted when Cerberus put him in danger. She looked as if she was ready to kill them all, and he didn’t know if he’d ever heard such raw emotion and fear in her voice when they refused to listen to her pleas.

“She’s not who you think she is. She’s different, and… and… I don’t know.”

Logic tells him Ashley is right. Whether he wants to face it or not, Shepard double crossed him, again. She set them up for Cerberus to take the journal, and to nearly kill him, and she did exactly what he knew she was going to do. But thinking about her makes something in him ache, like he knows who she really is, and that right now, with her gone, not knowing if he’ll ever see her again brings a physical pain to his body. He misses her.

“Kaidan, she left you to die on that mountain and took your grandmother’s journal from you. She’s not good. If you hadn’t hit that extraction alert —,” Ashley starts.

“I… I didn’t,” he says.

“You didn’t? Then who did?”

Then, he remembers Shepard searching his pockets and it clicks. She was looking for his alert, looking for a way to get him help and out of the jungle. It was something small she could do to save him. Since she couldn’t stop it from happening in the first place. 

“Shepard did,” he says. “She wanted to get me out of there. Get me to safety.”

Neither James or Ashley respond. Not right away. He’s not expecting Ashley or James to understand why he did the things he did, or why he feels how he does. They weren’t there. They weren’t in the middle of the jungle, alone with another person, spending all of their time with her, learning what she’s really like. They couldn’t know. 

“Whether she did or not, she and Cerberus are making quick advances toward Ilos,” James shares. “Your journal must be very informative.”

“It is,” he starts, and then it dawns on him. “Oh, shit.”

“What?” Ashley asks.

And before he can stop himself, he’s reaching for his boots and a jacket. Movement hurts but he’s determined, and it’s like a new fire has been lit under him. His head still throbs and he can’t entirely see straight, but a rush of adrenaline keeps him from thinking about it for very long. He knows this is a bad idea, and what he needs is rest and a hospital, but he can’t sit on his ass when Cerberus is getting close to the treasure. And when Shepard is walking right into a trap.

“Kaidan, what do you think you’re doing?” Ashley asks, trying to slow him down. She puts an arm around his back and helps him slide into his shoes. He begins to lace up his boots and then stops half-way.

He shuts his eyes and sighs. “The journal they have isn’t my grandmother’s original journal.”

Ashley crosses her arms. “What?”

“It’s a copy, one that I made. It’s… it’s entirely written in code.”

“You’re trying to tell me you rewrote her journal in a code only you understand? How the hell do _you_ know what it means?”

Kaidan leans over and laces up his boot on the edge of the bed. “I’ve gone nearly thirty years hearing these stories, and I have every last detail of those journals memorized. I figured if I ever got the chance to pursue the treasure, there was a chance I wouldn’t be the only one after it. So I… I encrypted it. It’s total bullshit to anyone but me.”

Ashley smiles and shrugs. “Well, there’s that then. Cerberus can’t find the treasure. They’re going to hit a dead end and one of those death traps will take care of them. Then we can go in and find it ourselves. Let them weed themselves out.”

“No,” he blurts out. He thinks of what’ll happen if he doesn’t act, if he doesn’t do _something_.8

“No, what?”

“I can’t let them do that,” he swallows, “they’re counting on Shepard to get them to the treasure. She’s going to open up that journal and realize no matter how good she is at this, she’s never going to be able to help them. And then they’ll kill her.”

There’s a moment of heavy silence, and the look on Ashley’s face says she already knows what’s about to come next. Kaidan reaches for the gun holster hanging off the edge of the bed and straps it to his waist.

“I’m going after her.”

James lets out a defeated sigh, knowing he can’t talk him out of it, but Ashley is quick to grab his arm and turn him around. 

“Kaidan, do you hear what you’re saying? Shepard betrayed you, and Cerberus already tried to kill you once. What do you think they’re going to do if they see you again? You won’t stand a chance. I… I can’t let you walk into that. Is this really worth dying over?”

Kaidan swallows. It’s something he hasn’t thought of before. Dying for this treasure. His grandmother always described it as a find worth dying for, but there was always some sense of hesitation in her voice when she said it. She eagerly told him stories about her travels and about what lies in the middle of the jungle, but it sometimes felt like maybe she was warning him. He thinks of his mother, who always dissuaded him from pursuing this, and how despite her support of nearly everything he did, she was always afraid that his passion would lead him toward danger. What was anyone supposed to say to her now?

“I don’t know. But I know that if I don’t do _something,_ I will regret it for the rest of my life. If I let that treasure fall into the wrong hands, if I let them… if I let them hurt Shepard knowing I could have done something about it?”

Ashley doesn’t need to say anything. Her expression says it all.

_You fell in love with her, didn’t you, you dumbass?_

“You can’t talk me out of this,” he finishes. 

Ashley shuts her eyes, but then nods. “Alright. Then let’s get you to Ilos.”

 

***

 

The gates of Ilos are stunning, and Shepard just wishes it was Kaidan she was finding this with. Not Cerberus, not with guns pointed at her back, not knowing they’re likely going to kill her anyway once they find this stupid treasure. 

Just the thought of Kaidan brings a pang to her heart. She doesn’t know where he is, or if he’s even alive. When Harper had dragged her way from him, the outlook was grim. His pulse was slow and he was completely unresponsive. She keeps imagining being pulled away, taking her hands off of them and seeing them covered in his blood, and being unable to shake the feeling that if he died, it’d haunt her and leave her longing for something she barely had for the rest of her life. 

Her eyes water as they approach the main gates to the city. Behind a hardened set of gates, Shepard can see the city across a long stone bridge spanning a rushing river and chasm beneath. Harper approaches her and passes her the journal. 

“Open it”

“You’re going to have to give me a minute,” she says.

He shakes his head. “No, you hurry. Or we find someone else to track down this treasure. Someone willing to cooperate.”

“Well, you probably killed the only other person who could have helped us,” she says, through clenched teeth. 

She carefully opens the journal and begins to look. She finds the pages that covered the temple, and starts to read past them. And that’s when she realizes she can’t read the notes. She never has been. Kaidan’s always been the one reading the notes, figuring out what the clues meant. He’s never even let her really look at it, except for when she lifted it off of him. And now she knows why he wouldn’t tell her what the symbols he’d been writing were. The entire journal is written in code. Her blood runs cold, and she knows she _can’t_ get them past this gate, not with a journal that’s good for nothing. And now she knows that Cerberus is going to kill her.

For a moment, she hates Kaidan for being so smart and knowing to cover his bases, to keep the wrong people from finding the treasure. She hates that he still somehow found a way to outsmart, her and that it’s definitely going to get her killed. But she thinks maybe this is what she deserves. She can’t be mad at him for this, not after all the times she’s hurt him, possibly even gotten him killed. This is the kind of end that cheaters and bad people like her get, and deserve, she supposes.

“I need time,” she says.

She thinks she can figure it out, maybe just by looking at what’s in front of her. There’s a set of steel gates, guarded by a hefty statue of a Prothean, and it looks like certain parts of the body move. She wonders if moving an arm or a leg will do the trick. She approaches the statue and looks closely at it. She grips one of the arms, to position it inward, toward the torso, and the statue jolts back, knocking her back. 

“Fuck.”

“Shepard…”

“I’m trying. Hold on.”

She looks back down at the journal, hoping for a drawing on an upcoming page, but all she sees are symbols and nonsensical letters, and a few arrows. It’s two diagonal arrows, faced inward, as if to bend two extended arms inward,like she was trying to do. She attempts the right arm again, and finds the same response. This time, gears turn in the gate. Not of success, but it feels like a gun loading a bullet into the chamber. 

This time she tries the other arm, and the gears turn faster, and both arms strike her back. She hits the ground, and draws a hand to the fresh gash across her cheek and her chest. She pulls herself to her feet, and struggles to catch her breath. There’s something she's missing, something she can’t understand or figure out. 

“Shepard, are you telling me we went to the trouble of getting this journal for nothing?”

“No, we have what we need. I just need to figure out how this works. It’s not doing what it says it’s supposed to do.”

“So his journal is bullshit?”

“No.”

“So open the door then.”

She wants to choke out “I can’t”, but she feels herself growing upset, and maybe even scared. Her life has been a series of doing shady things for money, or just because people said so, and few of her terrible acts have ever made her feel bad. Even the dangerous ones never made her upset and fearful for her life. She always presumed if she died some terrible death, it was what she had coming. But now, accepting that this was where it would end hurts more than she expected because she has no doubts it’s what she deserves. 

“I need this door open in thirty seconds or it is over,” Harper says, and he draws his gun. He presses the barrel into her side and she knows he isn’t bluffing. He’ll do it, and he won’t make it easy. He wouldn’t go for the head and just let her die. He’d aim elsewhere, some place where she’d die a slow and painful death out here, just to let her know what Cerberus does to people who fuck up.

“I can try again.”

“No. I know what happened last time. You got your whole squad killed making _attempts._ I need this to be right. I won’t risk anymore of my men on you fumbling. I got you that journal so you could be _sure._ ”

“Okay,” she whispers. 

But she isn’t sure. Not at all. She’s out of ideas. She can’t get the stupid arms to move, and even when she does, that can’t be all there is. She hesitates and hovers in front of the gates again, but can’t bring herself to draw her hands up to make any moves.

“Shepard! Now!”

“I’m thinking!”

She feels the gun press to the back of her spine, and it sends a chill up her back. She wants him to just get it over with at this point. Dragging it out is giving her time to think about it. 

“I need you to do something in three… two… —.”

“You want that gate open? You’re going to have to let her go first,” she hears, in a voice she thought she’d never get to hear again.

She turns away from the gate, and her eyes flood with tears. Kaidan stands behind the group, gun drawn, and not an inch of hesitation in his voice or demeanor. She wonders if she’s seeing things, or if maybe something happened that she missed, and she’s dead and seeing something that brings her happiness in the afterlife. She thought her last images of him would be him unconscious, bleeding out, and left to die on a mountaintop. But to see him now, to know he’s alive, to know he was willing to come back after everything… to think maybe he’d come back for her…

“Well, look who it is. I thought we’d handled you back at the temple.”

Kaidan shakes his head. “You’ll have to try harder to get rid of me.”

It’s clear he’s in pain, and that he probably needs a hospital more than he needs to be here. But she’s so grateful that he is. The bruising around his left eye and the whole left side of his head is immense, an array of purple and yellow and blue, with several pieces of tape holding together the biggest gashes. She feels like she’s personally done this to him, and she can’t shake the guilt.

“Are you here to reclaim what’s yours?” he asks.

“Something like that,” Kaidan says. “But I know I can open that gate, so if you want the help… take your guns off of her.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Kaidan shakes his head and steps closer to them. Shepard’s always seen Kaidan as a friendly and warm figure, one who probably didn’t get mad very often, and she’s only ever seen him at standoffish. But now, he’s mad, and she’s beginning to think he’s a person not to cross when he’s angry. “No. No ‘we’ll see about that’. You back off of her and leave her alone, and I’ll do what you want. I’ll get you to the treasure.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“No bluff. Her safety, your treasure. It shouldn’t be a hard deal. You lay a hand on her, and it’s all off.”

Harper looks at Kaidan, and then at her, and then at him again, before gripping her arm and shoving her away from the gate. Kaidan takes her arm and pulls her behind him as a shield. He lowers his gun and slides it into his holster. 

Shepard passes him the journal, and he takes it. He approaches the gate, and carefully pulls the dagger holstered at the figure’s waist toward him. Gears begin to turn and Shepard watches the gates reset. Then, Kaidan grabs the left arm, pulls it down. Then the right arm. When he has them both in position, she sees it. The hands are supposed to hold something. He thinks for a minute, and as it comes to him. Shepard is already passing him the relic. 

He takes it and places it in the figures hands. The gate shakes, and the doors begin to open. President Harper chuckles behind them, and the few Cerberus troops gasp. Kaidan takes the relic out of the statue’s grip, and enters Ilos. He walks toward it with a sense of determination and wonder, and she’s so glad he’s gotten to see this. But the moment of joy is cut all too short.

Kaidan’s focused on his grandmother’s journal, and at the tiles on the bridge in front of them. Finally, he looks back up. One of the Cerberus troops moves toward the bridge, and steps on one of the stones. It begins to rumble, and Kaidan quickly yanks him away. 

“No… that’s not a good idea.”

The rumblings grows stronger, like an earthquake ready to go off underneath them. 

“It’s obvious we hired the wrong person,” Harper says.

“I would never work for you,” he says.

President Harper shrugs and draws his gun. “Maybe that’s so, but that being said, we really only need one treasure hunter here. And we need the one who knows how to find it.”

“Remember what I said,” Kaidan adds. His voice is cold and calculated. 

“He and I can work together. We’ll figure this out—,” she begins, and then quickly ends.

Shepard hears a bang and doesn’t register pain until a few seconds later when she sees Kaidan’s face. She draws her hands down to her side and slowly collapses to her knees. Warmth spreads across her t-shirt, and she chokes on a cry of pain in the back of her throat. Her hands come away completely red, and she fails to pull herself back to her feet. Harper kicks her onto her back, and she tries to move away from him as he hovers over her.

“I am sick of how ungrateful and difficult you are. Consider this contract over, Shepard.”

He raises the gun again to finish her off, when she sees Kaidan’s figure come into sight and swing a strong hook at his head. Harper goes down, and he struggles for a moment to wipe his bleeding nose and mouth. Shepard begins to fade in and out of consciousness. She isn’t sure if it’s the pain or the blood loss or both, but she doesn’t know how much longer she can hang onto consciousness. 

Kaidan slips his arms around her, and begins to pick her up off the ground. 

“No,” struggles out. “Go. Leave me, and you go.”

But he doesn’t listen. He lets out a pained sigh as he tries to hoist her off the ground, but slides her against his chest and steadies himself. 

“Let’s go,” he says, as he wraps her arms around his shoulder. “Hold on.”

It’s clear it takes a lot out of him, but he doesn’t falter, and he doesn’t hesitate. 

“After them!” Harper screams, and the Cerberus goons start their chase. Kaidan quickly moves toward the bridge, and she watches him focus on which tiles he steps on, each one precise and correct, and as they reach the end, he moves quicker. The Cerberus soldier hesitate on the other side, not stepping just yet, knowing it’s surely a trap.

Kaidan rests Shepard down against a pillar on the other side, and runs back to the start of the bridge. He looks down at the tiles as the Cerberus soldiers begin to follow and stomps down on one with conviction. In a stunning chain reaction, one exploding tile turns into two, and three, and four, until each one blasts and dissolves into nothing. Several of the Cerberus troops collapse into the void below, but the last thing Shepard sees is The Illusive Man and his remaining men, trapped on the other side of the chasm with a gaping hole and no bridge between them.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I think this is the moment most everyone has been waiting for. Enjoy ;)

Shepard comes to, and she has no idea how long she’s been out. She hardly even remembers passing out, just Kaidan carrying her through the jungle after she asked him to leave her behind. But she’s here, and safe. She suspects he’s here too. She hears the sounds of soft writing not too far away from her. She opens her eyes and tries to push herself up from the ground. A sharp pain tears through her and she clutches the bandage over her side. She tries not to make a sound, but a soft whimper slips out anyway.

It’s not the first time she’s been shot, and she suspects it’s far from the most life-threatening, but god does everything about this situation suck. Betrayed by her boss, again, left to die in the jungle by someone who was supposed to be signing her next paycheck, and left to feel vulnerable and weak around someone she already felt way too strongly for. 

Kaidan moves beside her and sets down the journal on the ground between them. Shepard eyes it as he slips an arm around her back to help her up. Her side aches, but it still somehow feels better than she expects. She doesn’t know how he’s kept her alive and stable this whole time with so little medicine and first aid. She feels weak, like she needs food and water, but she does feel well taken care of.

“Careful,” she says, but finds that speaking hurts,“never know who will try to take that.”

He gives a tired smile and shakes his head. “I don’t think we need to worry about that. Better?”

She nods. He’s covered in dirt and dried blood — her blood — and he looks like he hasn’t rested at all. His eyes are dark and shadowed and it’s clear with each breath, he’s swallowing intense amounts of pain. He could have gone on through Ilos and went for the treasure. He could have found it already, and could be sitting some elegant resort by now, enjoying his riches.

“Yeah, thanks.”

They’re quiet for a moment, and she feels as though it’s on her to say something. She’s never been good with words, and Kaidan seems kind of good with them, but he doesn’t owe her any. Her eyes water.

“You didn’t have to do this. You could have left me behind,” and part of her wishes he had.

“That wouldn’t have been very nice,” he says.

Her eyes begin to burn more. “I don’t think I deserve nice.”

She looks at the bruising on his face, and the cuts and gashes left behind, and she can’t help but feel like _she_ did this to him. She was the one who sold them out, and even though she begged for his safety, the other option was to not betray him. And she chose the option that nearly got him killed. She’d half expected him to either die, or pack up and go home after that, like any normal person would. But then again, she thinks Kaidan’s never been the giving up type.

Kaidan barely takes a moment to think it over. “To be fair? I was waiting for the chance to pull the rug out from under you the whole time too. You just beat me to it.”

“You had a shot.”

“Yeah, well, when that time came, it didn’t really feel like the right thing to do.”

She knows what she feels for him, and she knows that it’s strong. She’s double-crossed so many, but this was the only one she’d ever truly second guessed. 

“Too bad I didn’t act on my feelings when it mattered too.”

He doesn’t address her statement, but she doesn’t feel any animosity in him toward her. 

“Thank you,” she says.

He nods. “Of course.”

“And I’m sorry,” she says, letting a few tears slip down her cheeks. It makes her feel weak, and unlike herself to break into tears in front of another person. He bites down on his lip, and it’s like he’s deciding if he wants to accept or not. Then he nods. He leans forward and wipes away the tears dripping down her cheek. He keeps his hand on the side of her face for just a second or two longer than he needs to.

“It’s okay.”

But it’s not okay, and she’s finding it hard to believe he’d accept so easily, that he’d get over what she’s done to him so fast. Though, she begins to think that maybe it’s not up to her whether or not he accepts. If it’s something he can find in himself to do, maybe she’s not the person to stop him. Maybe it’s because he feels for her what she feels for him. 

“But it’s not-,” she starts.

He shakes his head. “No, it is. It’s okay.”

She wonders if he knows that she’d told Cerberus beforehand that they can’t hurt him, she wonders if he noticed that she was looking for his evac alert, she wonders if he knows she was the one to make sure _someone_ came for him. It was the very minimum she could do for him. 

“Now maybe we should take a look at this wound again.”

She nods and leans back a little bit as he pushes the bottom of her shirt up. His hands are gentle, and he finds the seal of her bandage. He carefully tugs it back, and takes a look underneath. The pain had been so bad initially that she wasn’t even positive where she’d been shot. But as Kaidan gets more precise, she is beginning to realize that it was not quite as dire as she thought. 

“You’ve done a decent job taking care of me,” she says.

He smiles. “Yeah, well, I still think maybe we should get a doctor to look at you.”

“Uh, aren’t you a doctor?” she teases.

“Yeah, but not that kind,” he says. “I’m just some nerd who’s really lucky your boss can’t aim for shit.”

Shepard tries to hold back a soft laugh, but it slips out anyway. Her side throbs, and Kaidan eases his grip. 

“Yeah, he barely even hit you, just a skim along the side. Bled like crazy, but I think you’lllive.”

“You could have totally already found the treasure if you didn’t spend all this time taking care of me.”

“Maybe.”

Kaidan carefully adds another layer of gauze, and reaches for a larger bandage to place on top of it. He pulls back the adhesive and places it on top as another layer, and holds his hands on top of hers. She winces in pain and grabs at the wound again, over his hands. She curls her fingers around his.

“Shepard, I…,” he starts, and swallows. “I didn’t just come back for the treasure.” 

She feels tears in her eyes again, and she shuts her eyes to hide them. She holds onto his hand tighter, and he doesn’t resist. She wants to tell him how she feels, but she’s never been good with words. She’s never been very good with affection. 

He lets out a deep breath, and clears his throat. He rolls down her t-shirt and begins to back away, but she catches him before he can get too far. She grips the collar of his shirt, and slowly pulls him a little closer. He hesitates a moment and rests his hand on top of hers. He swallows and leans forward just slightly. He lets her guide, and she eases him down on top of her. He hovers above her, so close she swears she can already taste his lips. 

He pauses a moment, debating if this is something he wants, and then rests his lips on top of hers softly. She brings her hand to the side his face, brushing against the harsh scruff growing in on his cheeks. He slowly pulls away, eyes still shut, and runs his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip, as if he’s still tasting her. And it takes barely another second before she decides she’s not done yet. 

Shepard weaves her fingers between his thick locks of dark hair and pulls him closer. He carefully eases himself on top of her as she kisses him again. She grips his hair tightly and he lets out a gentle sigh against her mouth. Shepard helps him find a position on her that won’t harm her wounds, and their bodies come together. He feels so warm, and so gentle, and as she bites down on his bottom lip, his muscles tighten against hers and she finds it hypnotizing.

She knows there’s got to be better times to make out with handsome men, and that while she’s got half a bullet wound in her side is not one of those, but she can’t come up with any reason to stop.

“You okay?” he asks, resting a hand on top of her bandages.

She nods and eases him back to her lips. “Yeah.”

Kaidan eases his lips off of hers and moves to the side of her neck. His dark scruff brushes against her neck, equal parts rough and sexy, and she leans her head back, allowing him more skin to kiss. She lets out a heavy sigh as he moves lower and kisses her harder. She guides Kaidan back to her lips, and kisses him softly. 

She doesn’t know how long it continues for, but neither of them see much reason to stop, only pulling away to breathe or readjust to mind both of their long lists of injuries. If they were in a different situation — not in the jungle, totally healed, maybe in a nice hotel room — she knows she wouldn’t want to top until she had all of him to herself.

Kaidan finally pulls away, and hovers above her, his thumb tracing the curve of her bottom lip. They’re quiet for a moment before he lets out a soft laugh. 

“This is the strangest series of events,” he whispers.

She laughs too and brushes her thumb against his uninjured cheek. “You didn’t foresee us making out on the jungle floor after a series of multiple betrayals?”

He shakes his head. “No. I originally saw it maybe in my hotel room in DC after that gala.”

She smiles. “I fucked that one up.”

“Uh huh,” he teases. “You just had to keep me waiting.”

She feels so warm, so comforted knowing he feels the same way she does. For the first time in a long time, she feels cared for, protected. He makes her feel safe, and like she’s part of something. She isn’t just a person working for a paycheck. She’s doing something that matters _with_ someone who matters to her. 

“I’m still going after that treasure,” he says. “Blowing that bridge saved us a bit of time, but Cerberus isn’t going to stop. I need to be the one to find it.”

“I know.”

“If you feel up for it, like you can do it without hurting yourself, I want you to be with me when I do,” he says. “You in?”

She nods. “Yes. You don’t have to ask me twice.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so very excited for this chapter and the end of this story! I hope you guys enjoy :)

Kaidan wakes up at dawn with Shepard resting on his chest. Her head is at the center of his chest, and her arms are gently draped over his stomach, clutching a small wad of his t-shirt. Her breathing is still heavy, and she seems so at ease, not in pain at all. He runs his fingers through her hair and leans over to kiss her forehead. She shifts, and lets out a peaceful sigh. He feels stupid and full of bad decisions, but he thinks he may be falling in love with her.

He leans over and kisses her forehead again. “Come on, we’ve got to get moving.”

Blowing the bridge did grant them some time, and Kaidan knows Cerberus will have spent most of the night trying to calculate a way across. It gave both of them some time to rest, and Kaidan feels far more ready to venture forth. His body still aches and he knows he still needs to get to a hospital, and Shepard does too, but he thinks they’re both in a shape to move on, and to finish this. Maybe it was the rest, or maybe it was… something else. 

Shepard moves and rubs her eyes with the back of her arm. She gives a brief wince in pain and forces herself to sit up. “Right. Morning.”

He runs his hand up and down her back and nods. “Yeah. Come on, let’s pack up.”

He’d found them a small refuge within the city, something to shield them from the rain and raw nature. It hadn’t been the most comfortable place to sleep, but it was shelter enough. He thinks that perhaps by tonight, they’ll have found the treasure, and they’ll be able to make it back to Terminus, sleep in a _real_ bed. Maybe together. He thinks it’d be nice to sleep next so Shepard some place comfortable. 

They’re traveling lighter than before. Kaidan knows he’s close, and he doesn’t need the same needs as when he thought he’d be out here for days. He’s ditched his backpack for a smaller satchel attached to his belt and there’s no tent pitching materials or hammocks to lug around. It feels better, feels like he can move faster and get where he needs to.

Shepard rises and grips her side tightly. Kaidan helps her up and offers her an arm to lean on. He pulls out his journal and opens it up. Shepard hovers behind him, holding onto one of his belt loops for balance. 

“You coded the whole journal.”

“Yeah.”

“This was never the original, was it?”

“Nope.”

“Smart.”

He swallows. It was smart, and it proved exactly why he needed to do it. But had he been just a few seconds later, his cleverness could have been the thing that got Shepard killed. He tries not to think about it, but in a way, he thinks maybe they’re even. Maybe he’s betrayed her or pulled a fast one on her just the same amount. He just has to remind himself to be grateful he got there in time, that she’s still standing right here, and whatever injuries she has are minor enough for her to tough it out. 

“We need to move into the city. We need to go toward the central temple. They called it Vigil. It was the holiest location in the city, a… a sanctuary, of some sorts. It seems like it was defensible, like a last holding ground for the Protheans.”

“Well,” she starts, “if something was trying to wipe them out, why would they put everything in this temple? That’s dumb. I mean, then everything they were trying to protect was all in one place.”

“I don’t know. But we’ve _never_ found anything worth much from the Protheans, so if it is here, like the legend says, like my grandmother says, then it must still be there.”

Shepard nods. “Alright, then let’s get moving.”

They move as quickly as they both can, and they know that they’re going to be racing Cerberus at this pace. The heat and the amount of stairs isn’t treating Kaidan’s busted ribs very well, and Shepard stops every so often to check her bandages and make sure she’s not bleeding again. Kaidan’s beginning to think that his fantasy of getting a real bed may have to wait, and he may need to settle for a hospital bed for a few nights. 

Ilos is stunning, and unlike anything he’s ever seen. It’s a city of sharp angles and overgrown urban decay. He can see where it was thriving and powerful, and he can envision what it must have looked like thousands of years ago. His brain fills in the visual for him, applying the stories his grandmother told him with what he knows to be true. He can’t believe he’s standing here, and he hopes he’s made his grandmother proud — if she can see where he’s at now. He just knows that he needs to find the treasure for her now. He can’t have come this far for Cerberus to win.

“Kaid,” Shepard says, out of breath, “that looks like a temple to me.”

She’s completely right, and just up ahead is a large courtyard, surrounded by an army of statues that look like the smaller relic they have. They’re badly damaged, but not by weather and nature, but clearly by other people. The front of the temple is completely defaced, bits of the frieze and architecture chiseled off and damaged. But despite the damage, it’s clear that it was an important location. This _has_ to be it.

“Good eye. Come on. I think we’re the first ones here.”

Shepard picks up her pace and they push open the remains of the badly rotted wooden door. It takes a few extra pushes and the two of them, but the doors bust open and let them into the grand temple before them. The ceilings extend high with engravings and elegant architecture all throughout the inside. Vines and tress grow over much of the temple, but it’s clear there was once a great holy site here. 

“This is beautiful.”

Kaidan nods. “Yeah.”

But as they advance in, they begin to see a more grim reality. stairs surrounding the altar are scattered with human remains — centuries old, nothing but dry bone and dust left. Few bits of fabric and jewelry are left behind, but it looks like a last stand. Shepard is careful to not step on or shift any of the bones if she can help it, and she squats down to take a closer look.

“There’s… so many people here. They really did all come here to hide.”

Kaidan nods. “Yeah… or…”

“Or what?”

“Or to protect something.”

“Then we should find what that thing is. Did she say anything?”

He nods. “Yeah. She says to go to the altar.”

Kaidan carefully weaves his way through the bones and up the stairs to the altar. Badly aged silver candlesticks sit on the altar, and there’s signs of broken pottery and weapons left behind on the altar. But theres nothing here that looks like a clue yet. Then Kaidan backs away, and accidentally kicks the stone altar. And what he finds is that it’s not solid. 

“Shepard… there’s something under here.”

“What?”

He kicks the alter again, and hears a faint echo, and something rattling underneath. She nods.

“Alright, then let’s move this altar.”

They begin to push, and find that the stone is incredibly heavy, but they manage to wiggle it loose. And when they do, the rest of the altar shifts back, exposing a new chamber, and a ladder leading down into a dark, nearly endless hole.

“Holy shit, you’re right.”

“Yeah, now… ladies first?”

“You just don’t want to go down the dark, creepy hole first.”

“No, I don’t.”

Then a gun goes off at the front of the temple, shattering a stain glass window behind them. They look up to find The Illusive Man, flanked with several Cerberus guards standing at the entrance. 

“The two of you are proving _very_ hard to kill.”

“You’re a terrible shot, you know?” Shepard says. “Your bullet barely got me.”

“And yet you still somehow went down so quickly.”

Kaidan looks up from the altar and draws his gun. “Well, if that’s how you feel, let’s try it on you then.”

The Illusive Man chuckles and moves closer to the two of them. They stand on the other side of the altar, and he looks down into it.

“Very good. You’ve figured out our next steps.”

“You’re not coming with us,” Shepard says. “This ends here.”

“No,” Kaidan interrupts. “They can follow. We’re not going to win if we try to take them on. May as well all get there.”

“He’s very smart, Shepard. Maybe if he keeps his end of the deal, we’ll even let you two have some of the findings.”

Shepard looks to Kaidan, angry and confused as to why he wouldn’t fight them head on. He rests his hand on top of hers, and squeezes her fingers behind the altar, and gives her a look that says “trust me.” He hopes she’s able to understand.

“Fine,” she finally agrees.

“After you?” Kaidan offers to The Illusive Man. Instead, The Illusive Man draws his gun and points it at him.

“No. You first.”

Kaidan collects his journal and slides it into his satchel, and climbs over the wall of the altar passage. “Such a gentleman.”

Shepard follows him and turns on her flashlight and aims it down at him and the expanse of the tunnel. Kaidan follows the ladder down, taking each rung one at a time. They keep going for what feels like forever, and his mind starts playing tricks on him with what he sees in the dark. The air grows colder and damper and he knows they must be getting close. He puts his foot down and finds there’s nothing below this time.

“Shepard, can you shine a light for me?”

She aims the flashlight lower, and he sees solid ground below, and lets go of the ladder. He hits the ground with a force that makes his ribs ache and breathing burn again, but he’s on the ground. 

“Give me a second,” he says, and lights his own flashlight and examines the room. He finds several old torches left behind and a few braziers. He quickly lights them with his lighter, and the room brightens quickly. 

“Come on down. It’s safe.”

Shepard hops down after him, and then The Illusive Man and the Cerberus forces follow. The room is rather hollow and empty, but another small altar stands before them. It’s filled with coins and single huge brick of gold. Each coin he reckons must be worth a fortune, but the Prothean gold would be enough to make any man rich enough for a lifetime. 

“Holy shit,” Shepard whispers. “Is this?”

“No… This is just the first part of the tunnels. The Protheans called it the Leviathan.”

“I see.”

“What does that say?” The Illusive Man says pointing to a carving on the wall directly above the altar.

Kaidan’s reading ability in Prothean is primitive, and he thinks he’s one of few people who can even fumble their way through the language. Most of it is foreign, words that have no meanings in English or any other language, and most of their words are estimates. But he recognizes one word.

_Greed._

But there’s no saying he needs to be honest. Not with Cerberus.

“I can’t read all of it, but… I see the word weight.”

“Weight? As in weight in gold?”

“Maybe?”

One of the Cerberus goons approaches the altar, and Kaidan grips Shepard’s hand, pulling her away from the altar. He looks to the ceiling and sees a hanging bundle of rocks just above the altar. 

“So we’d have to move them?” the goon says.

“I don’t know. But we’re going to have to figure it out somehow.”

The goon laughs, and quickly picks up the block of gold. Gears spin above them, and before Cerberus can tug him out of the way, the netting holding the rocks collapses on the Cerberus troops. Kaidan watches The Illusive Man ball his fists and grow angrier and angrier. He turns to Kaidan and grips the fabric of his t-shirt before shoving him against one of the stone walls. His head hits the wall and it sends a sharp pain through his skull, and the more pressure The Illusive Man puts on his chest, the weaker he feels.

“You knew that’s not what it said.”

“And how can you prove that?” Kaidan says. “I want you to find a single person who says they’re completely adept at the Prothean language. I saw weight, and if your idiot soldiers think the best way to figure it out is by picking up whatever the hell they find, they deserve whatever’s coming for them.”

Kaidan hears a gun click and sees Shepard press her gun to the back of The Illusive Man’s head.

“Let him go. Tell your lackeys to not fuck with things they don’t understand next time.”

The Illusive Man lets go of Kaidan and glares. “Get us out of here.”

Kaidan swallows and begins to look around the room. That’s when he notices there’s three small holes in the doors in front of them, ones that would fit a coin. He approaches each of them and finds there’s symbols carved into each of the holes. 

“It’s the coins. We need to find the ones that match these symbols. This one feels like a building. I feel columns or something on it,” he says, rubbing the engravings on the wall. Shepard darts over to the altar, minding the blood leaking onto the ground from the soldier underneath the rocks. She begins to sift through the coins and holds her flashlight over each one. Finally, she finds what she’s looking for. 

“Here,” she says, tossing it to Kaidan. He slips it into the slot and the hole retracts into the stone.

“That was it. Next one,” he says, moving to the second door. “This one is scales. Like a balancing scale.”

The Illusive Man sifts through the coins now too, and he finds the coin in question. He throws it to Kaidan and he slips it into the hole. This coin retracts too, and something bigger shifts, something like an entire door. Kaidan feels the final engraving and he finds it’s badly obscured. It feels like a series of squiggles, but he can’t make out the print or what kind of image it would be.

“Dammit,” he says, “this one’s harder to read.”

“Let’s just try some,” Shepard says, “one of these has to be it.”

She takes a look at the image and brings over several, trying to match them. She slides one in, and it pops back out, and then another, and another. Finally, she finds one that looks like it has tentacles on the back of the coin, and slides it in. The wall takes the coin and retracts into itself, and then, the center door begins to lower. Kaidan watches as Shepard slides the remaining few coins into her holster, and advances toward the door.

What lies ahead is a single hallway, completely pitch black with air so stagnant it makes Kaidan think that he’ll choke on it. He’s always believed that in these kinds of situations, a passageway is never just a passageway, but this time, it feels like it is. 

“Everyone stay close to the light.”

He starts to move first, taking it step by step, feeling the ground before he puts his full weight down, and continues. The torch he carries grows dimmer and dimmer as the tunnel gets smaller and contains less air. He feels Shepard grip the back of his shirt and follow him down the path. 

He feels things brushing against his face as he moves down the dark hallway, and he doesn’t want to raise his torch to see what it is. He ignores the feeling, and the thoughts running through his head to what it could be.

He knows he should have been scared by the tests he’s faced so far, but something about a pitch black hallway, and having no idea what comes next is the worst of all of it. He realizes then that he has no idea how long they’ve been walking for. He thinks logically it may have been five minutes, but he can’t convince himself they haven’t been moving through the pitch darkness for almost an hour. He inches forward and finds that there’s something heading downward in front of him. He slowly inches himself down the slant, and stops.

“It’s heading down. Nobody go too fast.”

He eases himself down as much as he can, and feels the stones getting slicker with each step. His torch has just about all gone out by now, and his grip is beginning to falter. He takes a step and finds the ground below completely slick, and he hits the ground. His foot catches on an upturned stone not too far down, and he feels someone gripping at his shirt tightly. The impact of the fall courses through his body, and he feels sharp burning in his ribs again. 

“I got you,” Shepard whispers.

“Thanks,” he says, and immediately collapses into coughing as he struggles to breath. He tastes something metallic in the back of his throat, and his lips feel warm and damp. He thinks it’s better not to dwell on it at a time like this.

“I’m going to slide down from here. Take it slow.”

Shepard releases her grip on his shirt and lets him ease himself down the slope, until he hits some kind of flat ground. He stands, and reaches for the lighter in his satchel to try and relight the torch. He hears the remaining team coming behind him, but he swears he hears something else. Some kind of voices, something ominous and foreboding. It’s growing louder and louder, and he feels like he’s starting to go crazy. He has no idea if it’s the darkness, or his injuries, but he needs out of here fast.

He bends at the waist and covers his ears as best as he can and tries to focus on breathing. But that hurts too. He still hears the voices and the low sounds coming from the depths of the cave, and there seems to be no relief. 

It’s then that he feels Shepard rest a hand on the small of his back, padding around in the dark to try and find him, that it pulls him back.

“Come on, I think I see light ahead,” she whispers.

_God_ , he hopes she’s right. 

Shepard helps him up and guides him down the tunnel to what actually does look like light. It’s dim, but it’s something that sticks out amongst the sea of darkness in front of him. They reach the end of a tunnel and find a large, octagonal room with a giant hole near the center. And then, more darkness. 

But something about this feels like the end. 

Shepard relights Kaidan’s torch for him, and he uses it to light the other braziers around the room. The Illusive Man files in behind them and looks down at the hole in the ground. 

“Down there?”

“I don’t know.”

There’s something strange about this room. Something that doesn’t add up. He sees the remains of several explorers left behind around the rim of the room — no bodies, just items, relics of ages long ago, plenty of the same gold coins they’ve been encountering in the tunnels, and something that looks like a small shrine. 

Kaidan opens his grandmother’s journal and flips to a page near the end. He finds her notes describing how the Protheans felt about this treasure. 

 

  * _The Protheans knew that they would not survive. Their legacy was bound to be erased or forgotten, and if no one was around to retell the details of an isolated, but prosperous people, facts were not enough. But a legend… a legend would do._
  * _The Protheans left behind cryptic messages of a treasure worth dying for. How do they define dying for? What’s the purpose of being ominous?_



 

Then she writes one additional note.

 

_Now I know._

 

Kaidan looks down into the hole, and shines his flashlight on it. It’s hard to see, but what he can see, he doesn’t like. A chill runs down his spine, and he identifies what looks like a spring trap… covering nearly the entire base of the hole. He hesitates, and kicks a rock down to the trap. It doesn’t trigger, and he wonders if it’s not enough weight. If there’s a specific requirement… 

“Kaidan,” Shepard says, and raises a small folded piece of paper from the shrine to him.

He steps closer and takes it, unfolding the page. He immediately recognizes the handwriting.

 

_If you've made it this far, congratulations. You’re one of very few people to even attempt to find a treasure so many consider a myth. If you’ve made it it this far, you’ve faced the toughest challenges the Protheans left behind for us to find, to test us and help us learn about them. You’ve done the near impossible._

_What lies ahead, however, is the worst test of all. It’s rumored that the last remaining Protheans took refuge in these caves, and that it was not just a hiding place for their wealth, but for the last of their civilization. The Protheans knew that anyone who needed to find them — to find this treasure — would be willing to do anything to reach them. Their means needed to be extreme._

_This is a treasure worth dying for, and anyone who wishes to find it must be willing to pay the price. A sacrifice that may be too great to bear._

 

Kaidan opens his journal again, and flips to the final page, where a small folded piece of paper, exactly matching this one is taped to the page. Kaidan’s never been good about leaving things undiscovered, or letting things go. He’s a person who’s always wanted all the answers, so to leave something unread for so long. But directions are directions. 

 

The back of the paper reads: _You will know when._

He unfolds it.

 

_Kaidan —_

 

_If you’re reading this now, I know exactly where you are. I know exactly what you’re about to face, and I know how heavily such a thing is going to weigh on you._

_When I told stories to you as a boy about these adventures, about the treasure, seeing your excitement, seeing your passion was thrilling. I saw so much of myself in you, someone who wanted to learn and to see the world, and someone who would_ never _let anyone stop them. I knew that if anyone could finish what I started, it would be you. And that makes me so proud._

_The room you are in contains the corpses of men who did what they thought they had to in order to find the treasure, only to find that they could not live with what they had done. And those like me who ventured alone either perished or walked away… just like I did._

_Treasure is a strange word. Of course it can mean riches and finding something lost to time, but it can also mean something else. When I realized what needed to be done, I thought of your mother. She was so young then, barely having learned the alphabet or how to spell her own name. I_ wanted _to find the treasure, but she_ needed _me. And I knew that someone who was smarter and kinder, and better than I was, would find a way past the final test by doing the smart and right thing. I hoped it would be you. Many are cruel and ruthless, and I know that this treasure does not reward them._

_Whatever you do, whatever you choose, know that making it this far is no small feat, and I’m proud of you. Just know that no amount of money or fame will ever be worth losing who you are. Especially not someone as good as you. I love you. Venture forth._

 

Kaidan wipes the tears dripping down his cheeks. Several hit the old, worn paper, and he folds it back up. Shepard rests a hand on the small of his back. He struggles to clear his throat, but finds the best comfort comes when Shepard instead wraps her arms around him and tilts his head into her shoulder. He wonders if she was able to read the letter over his shoulder, and if she did, he thinks he’s okay with it.

He sniffles into her shoulder and she gives him a squeeze, something that tells him whatever they’re supposed to face, they’re going to face together. 

“Alright, enough. You promised to get us to the treasure, not string us along some emotional journey here,” The Illusive Man says.

Kaidan steps away from Shepard and clears his throat. “Fine. Someone needs to go down there.”

“How?”

“Jump?” Kaidan suggests. “All I know is there’s a trap down there, and it requires a significant weight to trigger. There doesn’t look to be much way around it.”

“One of us needs to trigger it,” he says, quietly.

“Yes. We can always try to find a rope or something and figure out how to set it off without anyone getting hurt.”

Instead of listening, he pulls back the barrel on his gun and aims it square at Kaidan’s chest from across the hole. There’s no way to disarm him, though he knows Shepard is wondering how she can manage it. 

“So you go.”

“I…”

“If this treasure is as important as you say it is, you should be willing to die for it, correct?”

Shepard grabs Kaidan’s shirt, and tugs him away from the edge of the chamber below. 

“And if you don’t,” he continues, “I have no hesitations about shooting you and letting your corpse set the trap for us.”

Kaidan knows that it’s probably the right thing to do, but he can’t die here. He can’t die not having seen it. His grandmother believed he could find a way past the test, and he needed to prove her right. He needed to see what rested on the other side of this journey. He couldn’t have come this far to die, he couldn’t have found someone like Shepard only to be taken away so quickly. Now, he thinks he understands _exactly_ what his grandmother felt.

But it doesn’t fill him with defeat, or a need to go home. It makes him realize he _needs_ to be the one to find the treasure. 

He begins to inch around the edge of the chamber slowly, and keeps his hands up in a surrender. Shepard follows.

“We’re going to figure this out, without _anyone_ dying. There has to be a way. There always is. And if you just take your gun off me and let me think and look, I’ll figure out a way down.”

He comes close to The Illusive Man, just a few steps away from being able to disarm him. 

“Just let me find a solution. And we’ll all get out of here okay.”

The Illusive Man thinks for a moment, and looks down at the chamber below them. Kaidan knows they’re close, that one wrong step or one push in any direction could send one of them down to their deaths. 

Finally, The Illusive Man lowers his gun, and extends it out to Kaidan to take. Kaidan wraps his hands around the gun, and begins to pull it away from him, but the grip is strong, and he immediately knows this is a trap. But before he can pull away, The Illusive Man shoves him. Hard. Hard enough that he’s barely within reach of the edge of the chamber. He’s going to fall. 

Shepard calls out his name and dives to the ground, and just before he thinks its too late, she curls her fingers around his wrist and catches him. The jolt of the fall sends an unfathomable amount of pain through him, and he’s sure holding him up isn’t helping Shepard’s injuries either. She reaches behind her and grabs a handle on the door to keep her from slipping into the chamber.

“Come on, try to pull yourself up,” she says.

Kaidan attempts to grip the ledge of the chamber, but once he has a solid hand hold, the rocks crumble out from underneath him. Shepard slides closer to the edge, and her hand is beginning to slip. 

“Someone needs to go down there. If you won’t make the choice on your own, I’ll make it for you!” The Illusive Man says. 

Kaidan tilts his head as much as he can. The Illusive Man has moved to the opposite side of the chamber, gun aimed at Kaidan’s back. He and Shepard are both sitting ducks, and it’s only a matter of time before he shoots, and he hits one of them. Either he hits Kaidan, and he falls, or he hits Shepard and he falls. Kaidan thinks he’d much rather take the risk at him getting shot. Either option ends in him plummeting to whatever lies below, and nearly certain death. 

The Illusive Man fires a bullet, a warning shot. Rocks from around the edge of the chamber crumble underneath them. 

Shepard lets out a soft cry of pain as she tries to pull Kaidan up more. He tries to grip, but the rocks are barely holding him and Shepard together. He doesn’t see there being enough support to get them both our of this.

“Hang on,” she says. 

She hesitates, and then lets go of the door, and tries to grab his other arm to pull. She begins to slide as the rocks crack around her and he tilts into chamber. Kaidan knows there is no way she can get the two of them up there, and outsmart The Illusive Man’s position. Someone’s going to have to let go. Someone’s going to have to fall.

“No, no, no,” he says. “It won’t hold.”

She grips the door again, and pulls harder. This time, she cries out, and bites down on her lip. She takes a moment to compose herself from the pain, and looks down with tear-coated eyes at the bleeding that’s started up again on her side. 

“Shepard… It’s okay.”

She shakes her head. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

“You may not be able to,” he says. 

A few tears leak down her face. “No.”

“Oh, come on!” The Illusive Man yells, and fires again. This time, the bullet ricochets off the rocks near Kaidan and strikes something above them. Rocks begin to fall from the flimsy ceiling above them. Several smaller ones pelt Kaidan on the head and back, and Shepard struggles to hold him as they hit her as well.

“Kaidan, I can’t keep—.”

“I know. It’s okay. I promise it’s okay,” he whispers. And he means it. He looks up at the ceiling and sees light filtering in from above. Larger and larger rocks are beginning to fall, and it’s only a matter of time before one strikes. 

“Just…” he starts, “make sure he doesn’t find the treasure.”

Shepard swallows and holds onto his wrist harder. A deafening crack echoes above them and a large rock thunders down the chamber. Kaidan turns his head just enough to see it strike The Illusive Man, and to watch him tumble down into the chamber. At the same time, the remaining rocks beneath his arm give away, and Shepard’s hand slips. And then he’s falling into pure darkness.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the last chapter! There'll be an epilogue after this, but this is the last solid chapter. Enjoy :)

 

Shepard reaches behind her and grips the handle on the door as the ground crumbles around her. She extends a hand out and tries to grip Kaidan, but she just narrowly misses the brush of his fingertips and he continues to fall. She calls out his name, but doesn’t hear any response, just the snapping shut of a trap meant for destruction. If she’d just tried harder, she would have never let him go in the first place. If she’d been smarter yesterday and not gotten herself injured, there’d have been no question. Anger is the only thing she can feel, because it was never supposed to end this way. 

When the last of the rocks fall, she steadies herself on the footholds and door handle. She shines her flashlight down, and can’t see much. Her heart races, thinking that she doesn’t want to have to find Kaidan’s body, doesn’t want to have to see him dead, but she believes there could be a chance he’s still down there, alive. She doesn’t know what the trap does, what it had in store for whoever was willing to jump. 

“Kaidan?” she yells out, but there’s no response. Not from him, not from The Illusive Man. 

“Kaidan!” she shouts again, this time, far more panicked, more terrified. She doesn’t even recognize her own voice. Nothing. 

Her eyes well with tears and she begins to work her way down the side of the chamber. Her side burns and she knows she’s bleeding rather badly again, but the adrenaline keeps her going, keeps her moving and desperate to save Kaidan. 

She finds several handholds and footholds, and finally reaches ground beneath them. She looks up at the open chamber in the ceiling and has no idea how they’re supposed to get out of here. She clutches the open wound in her side and struggles forward. Her fingers feel warm and slick, and she tries to ignore the pain burning at her skin. 

She flashes her light around the area, an open space, now that the trap has been clamped shut. It’s flat, almost identical to the room that was above them, minus the chamber. There’s a thin rim around the trap that would have been impossible to see from up above. 

She swallows and approaches it, looking at the gears used to reset it. She’s not ready for what she’s going to find inside, but the chance that Kaidan is somewhere down here and needs help… she needs to let her fears step aside. Her hands shake as they hover over over it, and she pulls back one of the levers. The trap opens with a force, and she finds blood. So much blood, leaking onto the ground and her boots. There’s remains of a body in here somewhere, but it’s hard to determine who or what’s left.

She feels something rising in her throat, but tears come out instead. She clamps a hand over her mouth and backs away. She can’t help but feel like this is her fault. If she’d led Cerberus astray, if she’d accepted a different contract or quit her job and walked away, if she hadn’t had enough feelings for Kaidan for Cerberus to know and use it against her. 

And then she sees it. A shred of fabric with the Cerberus logo crushed into the spikes. Hair that isn’t black. This… this isn’t Kaidan. 

Hope courses through her and she believes there is a chance Kaidan’s survived the fall. She turns around and steps away from the trap and skims her flashlight over the ground. She catches sight of something in the faint light shining down from the ceiling of the tunnels. She makes out Kaidan’s figure not far from where the rim of the trap would have been, and she rushes to him. A few relieved tears slip down her cheeks as she kneels beside him. He’s unconscious, and the gashes in his head have opened again. She carefully eases a hand behind his head and gives him a gentle nudge. No response. Her eyes fill with tears again and she brings her fingers to the side of his neck, and finds a steady pulse humming underneath her fingers. Tears flood her eyes and she chokes on a sob, and rests her forehead on top of his. He’s alive and still breathing, against all odds. She brushes a few strands of damp hair out of his face and kisses his temple. 

She hears Kaidan’s breathing quicken and he lets out a soft sigh. She moves to his side and grips one of his hands as he swallows and tries to open his eyes. 

“It’s okay,” she says. “I got you.”

Kaidan whimpers softly and gives her hand a squeeze before opening his eyes just barely. 

“Shepard? What —?”

He struggles to push himself off the ground, and Shepard rushes to ease an arm around his back. He sits up, and lets out a heavy, pained sigh and wraps his arms around his stomach. She sees blood along the inside of his lips, but he doesn’t seem phased by it. 

It takes a moment before he holds onto his head, and manages to balance himself. He looks around the room, confused, and sees the open trap, all the blood leaking from it, and the pieces come together. 

“It got what it wanted,” she says. “It’s like the treasure chose who should live and die.”

Kaidan gives a nod, like it all sounds like weird mystic crap, and his head hurts way too much to think about it. Instead, he grips her hand and draws her attention back to him. She brushes her hand against the side of his face, and kisses the tip of his nose. He holds onto her too, luring her closer until he can slide his arms around her. She lets him rest his head in the crook of her shoulder, and he holds her tightly. She knows he’s hurting, and that they both need to find a hospital soon, but she can’t help but let out a soft laugh and squeeze him tighter. 

“We did it,” she whispers.

He holds onto her tightly and nods into her shoulder. “Yeah, we did.”

She pulls away and pulls herself to her feet, and extends an arm out to him.

“The Illusive Man?” he asks.

“Not much of anything anymore. Can you walk?”

He nods, and she rises, gripping his hand and tugging him to his feet. He wobbles a bit and leans on her for balance at first. His face goes white with pain, but he’s standing. She’s sure that the cracked ribs he had before are likely fully broken now, and his concussion has definitely been upgraded, but she knows they’re close. She knows he’s going to be the one to find it. 

They move past the trap, and Kaidan glances down into the mess of blood and flesh mangled in the spikes. He holds back a gag and keeps moving toward what looks like a door. Shepard shines her light on it, and Kaidan steps closer to evaluate what’s in front of him. 

It’s simple — _so_ simple — and it feels like mockery, but perhaps if they’ve made it this far, the last puzzle could be something this easy. There’s a hole in the wall, small, shaped like a man, like a figurine. Something they’ve used before, exactly what started this. Shepard reaches into her bag and pulls out the relic, and passes it to Kaidan. He holds it in his hand for a minute, looking down at it, and swallows.

“You ready?”

She nods. “If you are…”

He gives a gentle smile, and slips it into the hole. 

 

***

 

The relic locks in place, and Kaidan steps back. He holds a hand up to push Shepard back as well. The relic vanishes, as if sucked down a tube, but gears begin to turn in the wall, and a brazier ignites on either side of the door, lighting up the room. Then, the door begins to sink. 

It moves down, allowing them to enter another room, this one larger than any of the others they’ve seen before. Once the entryway is clear, Kaidan steps forward. He knows what’s in front of him, but finding coherent thoughts or making sense of his feelings isn’t working right now. Shepard steps forward and lights several braziers, but finds it sets off a chain reaction. Brazier after brazier light along the room, completely illuminating all that’s in front of them. 

Kaidan sees gold, and with each new brazier, there’s more gold, and he wonders if it’s going to stop any time soon. There are chests of coins, elaborate vases and statues carved from the metal, pieces of art, ancient friezes and pottery. He steps forward and slips his flashlight into his belt. He bends down as slowly and carefully as he can in front of a pile of the loot and brushes his fingertips against it. dust flutters off the medallions and into the air. Shepard finds her way to some scrolls and a pile of gold coins, and he catches her toss a few into her back pocket. 

Treasure isn’t something new to Kaidan. He’s seen it before. He remembers the rush of prodding at the damp and cold earth, feeling his shovel hit something solid, and findingwooden crate under feet of dirt, only to open it to find gold and gemstones, and pieces of art, and jewelry from an ancient civilization, and knowing he’d done the impossible and found actual buried treasure. Or having tracked down pieces of art valued at millions of dollars, knowing he’d claim a substantial reward for their return.

But this is different. It’s not a chest of treasure, not an object or two to find. It’s an entire _chamber_ filled with gold, filled with art, with _history_ that everyone believed to be false for centuries. And he’s the first person to lay his eyes on it. He’s believed in the Protheans his whole life, but to be here — he’s never believed it more. 

He wishes his grandmother could see this, could see the piles of gold and riches, and how much history has been hidden here for so long. He thinks of the mockery and contempt she was met with, with the people who asked her why she didn’t just stay home and take care of her children, who chided her husband for not prohibiting her from being such an adventurer. He thinks of her writings, so precise and well done, all written off as nonsense and fiction. He wishes she would get to be the one who laughs in everyone’s faces. But he hopes whatever he can prove to the world will hold up and right the wrongs. 

A knot grows in his throat as he carefully makes his way down the stairs to the center of the room, toward a massive gold statue of a Prothean king, and leans against the pedestal of the statue. He hears Shepard come up behind him and she rests her hands on his waist. His eyes water, and he feels like he’s done enough crying for one day, but he can’t quite help it. 

“You did it,” she says, and she sounds proud, and like nobody deserves this more than he does. 

He reaches behind him and holds onto her. “Yeah… _we_ did.”

She rests her head at the center of his back and places a kiss between his shoulder blades. She lets out a very pleased laugh, and squeezes him gently.

“We are so fucking rich.”


	13. Epilogue

The helicopters and medics find them at the top of the temple, awaiting extraction. It’s not long after that before press choppers begin circling the site as well. Kaidan hopes that they’ll at least let him clean all the blood off his face before anyone forces him in front of a camera. The medic _finally_ releases Kaidan after spending several minutes prodding his ribs, and checking his vision. His shirt is somewhat bloodstained, and the bruising on his chest is extensive and he has no doubts he needs a hospital _very_ soon. But there’ll be time to sit in a hospital bed recuperating for weeks to follow. Now, he thinks he deserves the moment to soak all of this in. 

He takes a seat on a boulder overlooking Ilos. Ashley and James chat with the medics and local authorities, and he hears them keeping them away from him for now, assuring them that he’ll be willing to give any statements and lead them back to the treasure as soon as possible, but that he needs a moment to rest first. Kaidan knows the sheer amount of paperwork and academic work he’s going to have to do with a find like this, and for one of the first times, he’s greatly looking forward to it. 

He gazes out at the city before him, and he’s amazed it’s lasted this long, and that so few people have ever found it. It’s beautiful, and a testament to the Protheans for building things that last. There’s a weight off his shoulders, and a sense of comfort that comes with knowing all of this will be known. There’ll be no more room for debate, no more questioning _if_ the Protheans existed. It’ll be in history books as more than a myth. Fact. Something his grandmother tried so hard to prove. He hopes that she’s proud, and that wherever she is, she knows he’s the one to have found it. 

He’s shaken from his trance when he feels Shepard come up behind him. She takes a seat next to him on the rock and rests a hand on his leg. Her bandage has been swapped out and she holds onto it gently as she manages to sit. 

“Hey,” she says.

“Hey,” he replies, turning slightly to face her. 

“You did good.”

He nods. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Like… really good. She’d be very proud of you.”

He gives a smile. “I hope so.”

“Oh, I know so,” she insists. “How do you feel?”

He shrugs. “Well, the cracked ribs I had are now formally broken, and my mild concussion is now moderate and needs serious evaluation… It hurts to breathe, and the stitches in my head are mostly obliterated. I think I should probably see a doctor.”

Shepard laughs and nods. “Yeah, it sounds like it. You got yourself pretty messed up back there.”

He swallows and she brings a hand up to his cheek, luring him in for a kiss. His body aches and he has so little energy left, but her touch invigorates him and he leans in closer. She kisses him gently and grips at the damp curls at the back of his neck. Kaidan knows that Ashley and James must be watching, wondering what kind of mad man falls in love with the woman who tried to betray him, who nearly got him killed, who was supposed to be his enemy. He’s not quite sure he has the right answer himself.

Shepard pulls away and strokes his cheek with her thumb. 

“So,” she begins, “what comes next?”

Kaidan takes deep breath, which hurts. “ _Well_ , a hospital… then likely lots of press, so many interviews, and then _weeks_ of academic papers, coordinating excavations and recover. I—.”

Shepard laughs. “Alright, lots of boring stuff.”

“It’s not boring!” he insists. “It’s very interesting and necessary following—.”

“I’m kidding!” 

“But seriously, it’s going to be a lot of of paperwork, a lot of coordinating. I doubt I’ll be back up on my feet quickly enough to come do the excavating myself, so it’ll be lots of remote work, lots of patching in at weird hours to supervise, and determining which museums should get which artifacts. Fun stuff. Stuff I’ll probably be doing from a hospital bed for a few weeks.”

“I see…” she’s quiet a moment. “Well, what about after all that? I know you’re really committed to your boring papers and excavation coordinating, but I thought maybe you’d have some interest in something a little more adventurous. Like, there’s lots of things that need hunting down and maybe I’ve got some tips from a former boss, and maybe I know a guy who is pretty good at finding shit.”

Kaidan laughs and shakes his head. “Already?”

“I just thought I’d tell you about it since it felt _kinda_ too good to pass up.”

“Well, why don’t you go find it then?” he teases.

She’s quiet for a moment. “I could. It’s how I’ve always done things before. It’s how I was going to do this. But maybe something’s made me think working alone is a little overrated.”

“Well, the last partner I had betrayed me a few times. Super cute, but _total_ traitor. It may take me some time to warm up to another partner.”

She laughs. “Alright, well, then you’ll never know what cool thing I have a tip on that could be another find of a lifetime.”

Kaidan swallows. She knows him too well already. 

“Alright, fine. What do you got for me?”

Shepard reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small slip of paper and passes it to him. He carefully unfolds it and reads it over. He looks up at her, and then back at the page in disbelief. Then at her again.

“So… “she begins, snatching the paper out of his hands, “you in?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has been reading and enjoying this fic since I started working on it. I hope you enjoy this epilogue! I definitely don't think this is the end of the things I write in this universe, so keep your eyes peeled. I have fun things planned for these two :)


End file.
